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THE EEBEL PRINCE, 



LESSONS FROM THE CAREER 



OF 



THE YOUNG MAN ABSALOM, 



BY 

Rev. W. M. BLACKBURN, 
•» 

AUTHOR OF 

THE EXILES OF MADEIRA," " THE HOLY CHILD, 
" JUDAS THE MACCABEE," AC. 







PHILADELPHIA: 
PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OP PUBLICATION, 

No. 821 Chestnut Street. 



2*^ 






Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1564, by 

THE TRUSTEES OF THE 

PRESBYTERIAN" BOARD 01 PUBLICAIZ 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District 
of Pennsylvania. 



2.LL 



f9 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Preface 5 

CHAPTER I. 
Absalom's Birth-place and Boyhood 9 

CHAPTER II. 
Absalom the Indulged Son 18 

CHAPTER III. 
The Sinner's Victory 38 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Lawless Avenger 51 

CHAPTER V. * 
Absalom the Fugitive 68 

CHAPTER VI. 
Absalom the Exile 78 

CHAPTER VII. 
The Hand or Joab 90 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Absalom Plotting Treason 110 

CHAPTER IX. 
Stealing Hearts 119 

CHAPTER X. 
All Israel in Rebellion , 129 



4 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XI. 

PAGE 

The Flight of the King 140 

CHAPTER XII. 
David Wept 153 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Friends and Foes 162 

CHAPTER XIV. 
David's Friend, the Orator 173 

CHAPTER XV. 
The King's Head-Quarters 185 

CHAPTER XVI. 
The Rebels on the March 190 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Deal Gently 197 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
The Battle 213 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Absalom, my Son! 229 

CHAPTER XX. 
The Pillar in the King's Dale 238 

CHAPTER XXI. 
The Restoration 246 

CHAPTER XXII. 
Imitators of Absalom 257 



PREFACE 



This volume has grown out of a series of lectures, most 
of which were delivered to two different congregations. 
While some of the original branches have been pruned 
away, others have been added by growth and graft. The 
tree must now be judged by its fruits. 

The record of Absalom's life in 2 Samuel xiii. — xix. is as 

clear and concise as if written by the court-prophet Nathan. 

It has no parallel to it in Chronicles, and stands alone as a 

graphic piece of inspired Hebrew literature. In one view 

it is a vivid biography of the young man Absalom, the 

prodigal son of the Old Testament, who perished in his 

sins. In another view it is a sacred tragedy, full of most 

striking pictures of human nature, varied with deeply laid 

plots, enriched by frequent changes of scene, and enlivened 

by a great diversity of characters. For the study of the 

motives, policies, principles, and characters of evil and 

designing men, there are few portions of Scripture more 

profitable. Rarely do seven chapters furnish such a group 

of bold actors, such a record of great crimes against God 
1* 5 



6 PREFACE. 

and men, and such signal divine judgments upon the 
wicked. In the Prince Absalom we see the accomplished 
demagogue and the ambitious politician ; in Ahithophel 
the wise but corrupt statesman ; in Amnon, Jonadab, and 
Shimei, three ' ' lewd fellows of the baser sort ; " in Ziba 
the shrewdness of an experienced swindler ; in Joab the 
deepest private revenge combined with an effective use of 
his great military talents for eminent public services, and 
these are abundantly able to supply all the dark deeds re- 
quired in a vigorous, thrilling drama. Better men also 
appear, and it is worthy of notice that they are all upon 
the side of King David, who is the chief personage in the 
record. The priests — the church — did not abandon him in 
the time of his greatest national troubles. Unscrupulous 
as Joab was, his loyalty, duriDg Absalom's rebellion, was 
worthy of the greatest general under the Hebrew monarchy. 
Hushai gave his eloquence to the holy cause. Ittai was 
heroic in his patriotism, and poor Prince Mephibosheth, 
had he not been lame, might have carried his true alle- 
giance into kindly rivalry with that of Barzillai and his 
neighbouring chieftains of Grilead. 

Not a good, moral, godly man is named among those 
who engaged in Absalom's rebellion, unless the silence 
concerning the character of the incompetent Amasa is to 
be interpreted in his favour. The Prince seemed to de- 
pend upon a general ungodliness and hatred of David's 
piety then prevalent in the nation. The men, their spirit, 
their crafty designs, and their bold methods of gaining 
their ends, all tended to a great tragedy. 

In a third view we have before us a solemn history. It 



PREFACE. 7 

presents us the record of a desperate attempt to dethrone 
David, revolutionize the nation, and destroy the theocracy. 
It is the chief one of all the movements which finally re- 
sulted in the separation of the ten tribes from the federal 
government. Absalom prepared the way for Jeroboam. 
No reader will fail to notice the hand of God in all this 
inspired history. He sustained his servant David in all 
his royal trials, and preserved the throne, the church, and 
the city of the great king, by a series of remarkable pro- 
vidences. 

Nor do these three views exhaust the record. It is a 
striking picture of a family, deserving of close and fre- 
quent study. A father's sins are intensified in some of 
his children, and bring the sword into his own house. 
There are shown to us some of the plainest lessons upon 
family government, family trials, and family judgments. 
It is not only as a king that David is sorely afflicted, but 
as a father. Those who magnify his faults should justly 
remember his very great and very many trials. In no 
other part of his reign did he exhibit more wisdom, ten- 
derness, and greatness in adversity. 

It is our effort in this unpretending volume to draw some 
useful lessons for our guidance in the family, in society, in 
the church, and in the national government. We have 
also kept in view the gospel light afforded by these seven 
chapters, for in the depths of David's heart we see an 
illustration of the boundless love of Grod, and in his sor- 
rows he stands as a type of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

It was the favour which the original lectures received 
from those who heard them, that prompted the author to 



8 PREFACE. 

commit them to the press, and the volume is now laid at 
the feet of Him who sits upon David's throne, for only 
with His blessing can it be of any service in securing a 
further allegiance to the King of kings. 

W.M.B. 
Trenton, New Jersey. 



THE REBEL PRINCE 



CHAPTER I. 

Birthplace and Boyhood. 

IVe learned to judge of men by their own deeds ; 
I do not make the accident of birth 
The standard of their merit. 

Our starting point is one of king David's great 
unselfish sorrows. Had he been a usurper, or been 
impatient for the throne which Saul had forfeited, 
or revengeful toward the hunter after his life, he 
would have exulted when he heard of the death of 
the royal persecutor. But no : the fountains of 
his tenderness were opened, and the great deeps 
of his heart were broken up. Caesar wept when 
he heard that Pompey, his bitterest rival, was dead 
by other hands than his : with sincerer grief David 
lamented the fall of the mighty in Israel. Caesar, 
after conquering Pompey's sons, was honoured 
with the title, "Father of his country." David 
did not seek a victory over Saul's sons, and yet the 
people were ready to anoint him king over Judah, 
for he had long been the anointed of the Lord. 



10 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

After he had vented his grief in tears and in song, 
he " inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I go up 
into any of the cities of Judah ? And the Lord said 
unto him, Go up. And David said, Whither shall I 
go ? And he said, Unto Hebron." 

That was no mean city. It was associated with 
ancient and sacred events. No city in Palestine 
so carries one back to the earliest patriarchal times. 
It seems to have been the first haunt of civilized 
men in the land ; so ancient that it was built seven 
years before Zoan in Egypt. Under the oaks of 
that neighbourhood Abraham had often pitched his 
tent and raised his altar to the God who had sent 
him forth to sojourn in the land of promise, as in a 
strange country, and to join his example with that 
of our Lord, in teaching us to confess ourselves as 
strangers and pilgrims on the earth. There, among 
the olive-groves, had rambled Isaac, the child of 
promise, before he was chosen for the painful trial 
of his father's faith. There Sarah, the partner in 
Abraham's wanderings, and the partaker with him 
in the promises, had breathed her last, and thence 
she went to " a better country, that is an heavenly." 
There was the cave in which was laid the dust of 
so many of the patriarchs, in the hope of a glorious 
resurrection. "And from that day to this, it has so 
come to pass in the providence of God, that no na- 
tion or people has had possession of Machpelah, 
who would have been disposed to disturb the ashes 
of the illustrious dead within it." And there, 



BIRTHPLACE AND BOYHOOD. 11 

doubtless, will rest in peace the dust of Abraham 
and Sarah, of Isaac and Rebekah, of Jacob and 
Leah, until God shall bid it rise. It was the only 
spot that the Father of the faithful ever owned, and 
no doubt, it will be held for his family until the 
last day. 

Perhaps Joshua and Caleb visited it, when they 
Were honestly spying out the land, and from the 
neighbouring valley they carried back the goodly 
Eshcol grapes, as a most acceptable proof of the 
richness of the promised land. To Caleb, "one 
of the noblest spirits the nation ever produced," 
was given Hebron and the vicinity for his posses- 
sion. It was the old Kirjath-Arba, where dwelt 
the Anakim, who were so great a terror to the false 
spies, and of whom they reported, " There we saw 
the giants, the sons of Anak, which came of the 
giants, and we were in our sight as grasshoppers, 
and so we were in their sight." Giants or not, 
Caleb felt willing to encounter them, and as Moses 
had promised that " the land whereon his feet had 
trodden should be his inheritance, and his children's 
for ever," he asked it, saying, "If so be the Lord 
will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them 
out." He drove thence the three sons of Anak, 
and Hebron became his inheritance, "because 
that he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel." 

Hebron was afterwards appointed as a residence 
for the Levites, and a city of refuge.* " No place 

* " Hebron furnishes another refutation of the ancient fable about 



12 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

could have recalled more vividly the lessons of de- 
parted worth, and the victories of early faith, or 
abounded more in memorials of the blessedness of 
following the Lord. It was a token of God's kind- 
ness to David, that he directed him to make He- 
bron his head-quarters. And it was a further to- 
ken of his goodness, that no sooner had David gone 
up to Hebron, than ' the men of Judah came and 
anointed him king over the house of Judah.' It 
was not all that God had promised, but it was a 
large instalment." 

And now notice David's family. " David went 
up thither, and his two wives also, Ahinoam the 
Jezreelitess, and Abigail, Nabal's wife (widow) the 
Carmelitef and his men that were with him did Da- 
vid bring up, every man with his household : and 
they dwelt in the cities of Hebron." He after- 
wards won back Michal, his first wife, to prove a 
source of unabated vexation. And yet others were 
added to the number of his wives. One of these 
was Maacah, the daughter of Talmai, king of Ge- 
shur, whose territory bordered on eastern Manas- 
seh. His name suggests the three sons of Anak, 
expelled from Hebron by Caleb, one of whom was 

the cities of refuge, that they were situated in conspicuous positions. 
Here it lies in this long valley, with no prospect in any direction 
except toward the southeast, and even that is not extensive." Thom- 
son's Land and the Booh. 

f Of the Carmel near to Hebron, where Saul was told, " Because 
thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he also hath rejected thee 
from being king." 1 Samuel, xv. xxv. 



BIRTHPLACE AND BOYHOOD. 13 

Talmai. Was the later Talmai a descendant of 
the Anakim ? If so, Absalom had in his veins the 
blood of the giants, and also retained something of 
their pugnacious disposition, for he was the son of 
Maacah. Why David sought the hand of this 
heathen princess we know not ; probably because 
the alliance seemed of importance to him, in mak- 
ing more permanent the royal power. It was pub- 
lic policy. " He does not appear to have been 
altogether above the prevalent feeling of the East, 
which measured the authority and dignity of a 
court by the rank and connections of the wives of 
the king." It is painful to record the fact of Da- 
vid's polygamy, but we do not make the fact. We 
simply state it, without exaggeration or apology. 

The six sons of David born in Hebron, were but 
half-brothers one to another. The son of Maacah 
was a goodly child, and to him was given a goodly 
name, full of meaning and of hope. The names 
given to Hebrew children were often expressive 
of their future character or career. If this was 
intended by the parents, it furnishes a clue to their 
expectations. The name Elisha signified "the 
salvation of God," and it foreshadowed the mis- 
sion and character of him who bore it. Gideon 
was, indeed, "lie that bruises or breaks, or he that 
brings iniquity to an end." To a vigorous child 
was given the name of Deborah, the Bee. It was 
prophetic, for such she proved, having " honey for 
her friends and a sting for her foes." David's 
2 



14 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

name was fully realized, and not by his parents 
alone, for he was truly "beloved" by the nation 
and the church of his day, and "dear" to the 
heart of the godly through all ages. What pro- 
phecy and adaptation in the name given to the babe 
of Bethlehem ! Jesus, " for he shall save his peo- 
ple from their sins." 

Yet many names seem to tell us of the disap- 
pointment and the crushed hopes of parents. Eve 
called her first-born Cain, — "possession" — as if in 
him she already possessed the promised one by 
whom the head of the serpent should be bruised. 
And yet she lived to see him a murderer. Solo- 
mon, probably, indulging the hope that his king- 
dom would be extended and made more glorious 
under the reign of his only royal son, called him 
Rehoboam, — one who enlarges, or sets the people 
at liberty, or lets the people breathe. But it was 
he who said, " I will add to your yoke ; my little 
finger shall be thicker than my father's loins ; 
my father chastised you with whips, but I will 
chastise you with scorpions." And the people 
seeking to breathe, took a wrong course. They 
rebelled, and Israel, instead of being enlarged, 
was rent for ever. The best of names cannot im- 
part character, nor confer grace. 

King David came to know the depths of this 
disappointment. He named his oldest son Amnon, 
"the faithful and true." A glaring misnomer, 
for he proved faithless to all morality, and false to 



BIRTHPLACE AND BOYHOOD. 15 

a sister's love and honour. After being the vic- 
tim of his baseness she painted him by saying, 
"Thou shalt be as one of the fools in Israel." 
David's next son was named Chileab, "the perfection 
of his father," but either because of early death, 
or incompetency, the name was never realized in 
history. 

But King David's sorest disappointment was in 
that brilliant, and most beloved son ; the real 
prince of the blood before Solomon ; the only one 
born of a royal mother. Hoping great things of 
him, and perhaps intending to make him the heir 
to the throne, he named him Absalom, "the father's 
peace," or "the father of peace." He proved 
anything but either, for he gave his father no 
peace, and in his manhood, allowed none to the 
nation while he lived. He was even at war with 
Jehovah, and perished as the enemy of God. 

Of Absalom's boyhood we have no record. The 
scenery and sacred associations of Hebron could 
have had but a slight influence upon his character. 
Before he was seven years of age he was taken 
away from the city of his birth. The times of his 
childhood were those of war, when his father took 
the field and swept many a valley clear of enemies. 
He may have been old enough to share in the 
popular excitement caused by the siege of Jerusa- 
lem, about eighteen miles distant. Jle perhaps 
shouted in delight, when the tidings came that his 
father had taken the strong hold of Zion, and may 



-16 THE REBEL PRLXCE. 

have wished for the day to come, when he might 
lead armies to the shock of battle, and smite walled 
cities to the dust. It may have been a glad day 
for him, when his father removed from Hebron, 
and established his family, his court, and his throne 
in Jerusalem. Perhaps he stood on the housetop 
eagerly watching the splendid procession, march- 
ing with shouting and with the sound of a trumpet, 
when the ark of the Lord was brought into the 
city of David. Perhaps he wished himself one of 
the poor boys of the villages, after David had set 
the ark in its place, and while he was dealing out 
to all the people the choicest cakes and the best of 
wine, and when "David returned to bless his 
house," perhaps Absalom was one of the first to 
greet him, and beg some favour of an indulgent 
father. 

The services connected with the bringing of the 
ark into the city were well adapted to make a most 
serious and lasting impression upon the mind of 
Absalom, even if he were but a child. Thirty 
thousand men of war were present. It was far 
more than a grand military parade for the display 
of the national strength. It was a glad and solemn 
act. Prayers and praises were offered and sung. 
A reviving influence must have been felt in all 
pious hearts. It was placing in the city the holiest 
symbol of God's presence. It was "bringing God 
into the capitol," and giving him an habitation. 
It was giving him a welcome with the public shouts 



BIRTHPLACE AND BOYHOOD. 17 

of thankfulness, and as the whole multitude sang, 
"the magnificent volume of sound was, so to speak, 
the chariot of song, and the horses of song, that 
bore up this feeling to heaven, and made the ser- 
vice of the church below, a not unworthy echo of 
the service of the church above." Well does one 
say of this scene, " I have no notion of hearing, 
or of any man's ever having seen or heard any- 
thing so great, so solemn, so celestial, "on this side 
the gates of heaven." 

Yet if it affected Absalom at all, it was not for 
any lasting good. He from a child rejected God 
from his own heart. He grieved the Holy Spirit. 
The soul of King David was exultant with joy, 
but there were those in his house who had a con- 
tempt for revivals of religion. Michal treated his 
religious fervour with a sarcastic sneer. If Absa- 
lom heard her reproach, it must >have produced a 
most hurtful effect. It was freezing every warm 
emotion that may have been kindled in his soul. 
Many a child has been injured and hardened in 
heart by hearing solemn things lightly spoken of, 
revivals ridiculed, and the earnest manifestations 
of religious joy treated with the sneers of contempt. 
Thus perhaps a day of grace passed unimproved 
by the child Absalom. 



18 THE REBEL PRINCE. 



CHAPTER II. 

Absalom the Indulged Son. 

The faults kings do, 
Shine like the fiery beacon on a hill, 
For all to see, and seeing, tremble at. 

Bad men often furnish good lessons. They re- 
veal to us chapters on the worst side of human 
nature, so that we may read and be warned. If it 
be well to look a little into the depths of Satan, it 
may be even better to gaze down into the astound- 
ing depths of human nature, and see what depravi- 
ties lie there, ready in every man, to break forth 
with volcanic fey, unless they be extinguished by 
the Spirit of God. Not Absalom's crimes, rebel- 
lion, and death alone, are lessons profitable for us 
in these our times, but from the home of his youth 
we may derive hints of errors to be avoided in the 
rearing of children. From certain facts we may 
get some insight into his early training. 

VTe can pity King David in his disappointment, 
and in all the crushing grief that his favourite son 
caused him to endure. Vs'e can pity every parent 
whose child causes sorrow and shame in a kindly 



ABSALOM THE INDULGED SON. 19 

heart and a godly home. Especially painful is it 
to see the sons of some of the most moral and 
Christian parents turn out so wretchedly and dis- 
gracefully that we almost wonder whether they 
ever received at home any reproof, any instruction, 
any correction in righteousness. The family tree 
may be ancient, and renowned for its goodness, 
and yet much of the fruit may be so evil that it 
spreads contagion wherever it falls. And the 
doctrine is forced upon us that piety eannot be in- 
herited by birth. "Grace does not run in the 
blood, but depravity does." The worst qualities 
of human nature, concealed or suppressed, or al- 
most extinguished in the parents may appear in 
their children ; but the better qualities, and all the 
Christian virtues must come from above. Every 
child must be born of God, if there be a sure 
escape from the most deadly and disgraceful propen- 
sities of our common nature. The best instruction, 
alone, cannot purify the youthful heart. Unless 
the Dove descend from heaven, and abide upon 
the soul, the son of peace and of piety will not 
certainly be found in the home of a father who is 
as a priest in his house, and a mother who is as an 
holy prophetess, teaching and guiding her children. 
Why did Absalom prove so unworthy of his 
name, so unlike his father, and so fully bent upon 
a lawless and rebellious career? Why does any 
son of a pious parentage become heedless of holy 
precepts, and godly example? Whose fault is it? 



20 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

The parents are often blamable in this matter. 
Eli's sons made themselves vile, and he restrained 
them not. The Bible lays bare this fault in the 
house of David. If it were possible we would 
cover it, as did the artist who painted the Macedo- 
nian emperor, and hid the scar upon his face. It 
was an honourable scar, memorable of victory, but 
still it disfigured the royal countenance. And the 
painter sketched the monarch, leaning upon his 
elbow, with .his fore-finger covering the scar. So 
it is with • that genuine charity which u covereth a 
multitude of sins." Instead of exposing the faults 
of others in scorn and ridicule, it lays over them 
the finger of love, except when truth and justice 
require them to be openly rebuked, But charity 
also "rejoiceth in the truth," and it spares not the 
faulty when we need to be warned. Inspiration 
has not hidden this dishonourable scar in the con- 
duct of David. If we could, we would paint him 
with this flaw screened from view, by the sceptre 
which he so ably wielded as the best of kings. 
David's excellencies shine out so brilliantly, that 
he is like the sun hiding his spots by the dazzling 
glory of his brightness. It is only by the tele- 
scope of the Bible that we detect any dark spots 
upon the royal character. 

Let it not be supposed that we are indulging in 
the spirit of irreverent criticism, and to guard us 
let the words of Dr. Kitto be quoted. "Now, the 
character of David is very dear to us, and he has 



ABSALOM THE INDULGED SON. 21 

ever been the object of our sympathy, our admira- 
tion, and our love. But truth is dearer to us than 
even the character of David; and we must not 
consent to call evil good, and to put darkness for 
light, because the evil was David's, and the dark- 
ness David's. If we were to set about to prove 
that all David did was right, and the best that 
could be done, we should not only contradict Scrip- 
ture, but have work enough upon our hands. Far 
be it from us to claim for him, that which belongs 
to One only of all who ever walked the earth. 
Let us admit the errors and weaknesses of David, 
as they occur, and our task becomes easy, and his 
history becomes consistent and clear; but let us 
uphold him through good and evil, through 'the 
bitter and the sweet,' and we soon find ourselves 
4 in wandering mazes lost,' and our perceptions 
of the broad landmarks between truth and error 
painfully disordered." 

We quote also from another writer,* words 
which may apply to many Christians of our own 
times. " David's slips were like the temporary 
retiring of the gallant soldier, when fagged and 
weary, he is driven back for a few moments by 
superior numbers, but as soon as he has recovered 
his breath, dashes on undaunted to the conflict. * * 
With all his slips and falls, there was something in 
the demeanour of David that showed him to be 

* Rev. W. G. Blaikie, in his "David, King of Israel; London/ 
from which some of the thoughts in this chapter are taken. 



22 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

cast in another mould from that of other men. 
He was habitually aiming at a higher standard, 
and upheld by the consciousness of a higher 
strength; he was ever and anon directing his view 
to the secret place of the Most High, taking hold 
of him as his covenant God, and labouring to 
draw from him the inspiration and the strength of 
a nobler life than that of ordinary men." 

And once more, as Bengel says, " A swan, ply- 
ing equally both feet gains upon the water, how- 
ever turbulent ; so David's spirit with all his faults 
struggled through every difficulty in one general 
direction. This consoles me about many a disaster, 
yea, and fault of God's true servants at present." 

Have you not been struck by the remarkable 
fact, that while David was so admirable a governor 
in the kingdom, he- was so unsuccessful a ruler in 
his own house ? He had a splendid management 
of public affairs. He could plan and execute great 
enterprises in the state and in the church, in the 
camp and in the court. He was faithful on the 
throne as the representative of Jehovah, seeking 
his counsel, and carrying out his will. In this re- 
spect, especially, he was " the man after God's own 
heart ;" the very king who best fulfilled his pur- 
poses in the theocracy. But when he came down 
from that throne into the sphere of home, he did 
not so ably fill the father's chair. He could hardly 
have said, " My own dear quiet home, the Eden of 
my heart," for in this "Paradise of childhood," he 



ABSALOM THE INDULGED SON. 23 

found too much eating of the forbidden fruit, be- 
cause he gave too much indulgence to his children. 

And you ask, why did God permit this ? Why 
was not this model of a king, also the model of a 
father? It is not the royal example that we need, 
so much as the paternal example, and why do we 
not find it in the father of Absalom ? Few kings 
will read the pattern set before them, and it seems 
to be thrown away ; but millions of parents read 
of his family government, and why should they not 
find everything there for imitation ? 

Aye, these millions of fathers do have his ex- 
ample, not for imitation, but for warning. Let us 
not throw it away. We need both examples. Very 
often when the good are speaking to us with gen- 
tle voice, and persuasive entreaty, we heed them not. 
We do not see the dangers that lie before us. But 
when a faulty example roars and thunders its warn- 
ings in our ears, we are moved with fear to shun the 
errors into which others have fallen. When we know 
the very rock upon which a noble ship struck and 
shattered the strongest beams, we will not be so 
likely to run the risk of wrecking upon it. 

And now look at some of the influences in the 
home of king David, which must have had their 
effect upon Absalom. We learn their existence 
and power by inference, but inference is often as 
strong as the plainest statement of fact. We are 
judging the tree by its fruits ; the mode of culti- 
vating the field by the harvest which is reaped. 



24 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

First, there was polygamy — one of the sins, that 
even in our goodly land casts its pestilential sha- 
dow, and fills a part of it with abominations which 
we must not tolerate. The whole force of our laws, 
our morality, and our common Christianity ought 
now to be set righteously against it, for it is possi- 
ble that it may be taken up before long by those 
who make politics their trade, and a party question 
be raised whether our laws shall be executed among 
the Mormons ? And then it must be very deli- 
cately handled in the pulpit, and by the religious 
press, or the charge may be brought against us, 
that we are preaching politics, and meddling with 
party affairs ! or we must contend for the right to 
declare the whole truth on purely moral questions. 
Let us " cry aloud, and spare not," while we have 
free opportunity. 

Polygamy in David's house may have been a far 
less heinous thing than in the home of many a 
heathen king. Its evils may have been greatly 
modified, yet God's disapproval and punishment 
fell upon it. It brought a train of calamities upon 
the house, and the heart of the king of Israel, car- 
rying a terrible retribution upon the nation. In 
his home there must have been sad confusion, no 
unity in principles and plans, in rules and methods, 
in teachings and in prayers. He was in every 
sense "unequally yoked with unbelievers." And 
Absalom must have found enough of rule along 
with too much misrule. Instead of the "republic 



ABSALOM THE INDULGED SON. 25 

of home," he doubtless found maternal anarchy of 
the wildest sort, and scenes of jealousy and deeply 
plotted revenge, that trained him early to be a stu- 
dent of dark envies and grudges, as well as a plot- 
ter of conspiracies, and the cool perpetrator of 
crafty wickedness. At home, when not under his 
father's eye, he may have been schooled in the arts 
of intrigue, and in the policies of demagogism and 
of rebellion, in which he is an adept when he first 
makes his appearance in history. Is it ever true 
now, that one parent teaches a child those cunning 
arts, by which he may disobey the commands, or 
escape the penalties uttered by the other ? Do 
parents now ever disagree in their methods of 
managing their children ? Does one make light of 
the religion which the other imparts ? If so, what 
wonder if a son of theirs prove more of an Absa- 
lom, than an Isaac, or a Timothy ! - 

Secondly, Out of these inharmonious marriages, 
with their variances and jealousies, grew other evils, 
affecting the father's example. Absalom surely 
had the best of precepts from his father, but he 
looked also for the best of examples in the life 
which was set before him. Every parent who 
" gives good precepts, and follows them by a bad 
example, is like a foolish man, who should take 
great pains to kindle a fire, and when it is kindled 
throw cold water upon it to quench it." 

Many of David's personal faults and sins arose 
from the want of unity, order, and peace in his 



26 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

family, and would not his sons naturally copy them ? 
Many a son imitates his father just far enough to 
ad,opt the worst qualities. A parent may have a 
hundred good traits, and but few bad ones, but the 
risk of his children imitating the evil traits is far 
greater than the likelihood of their attaining to 
the excellencies of his character. Nature inclines 
to the evil ; nothing but the grace of God can in- 
cline them to the good, and this grace they may 
reject. No parent can bestow it. Father or mo- 
ther may pray for it, and still, as it is a matter of 
mercy and not of debt, God .may rightfully with- 
hold it from a child fully bent upon an evil way. 

David was peculiarly rich in the best qualities 
of nature, and the highest attainment of grace, and 
hence his few defects only glare the more, and 
strike boldly on our vision. Absalom and Amnon 
eould easily see them. And these defects are the 
very ones that appear magnified in his sons. 
"What he did once in " some unguarded hour," be- 
came their habitual sins. What he did under 
strong temptation, they committed of their own 
accord, out of a passion for the iniquity. "What he 
repented of, and turned away from for ever, they 
followed after eagerly as hounds hungry for the 
prey. Where he once fell, but rose again, lifted up 
by the unseen hand of God and set on the rock, 
they fell, and went creeping on into the lowest of 
sins and into perdition. Where he once lusted, 
they became licentious. Out of a hint from their 



ABSALOM THE INDULGED SON. 27 

father's follies, they formed habits of reckless 
wickedness, giving rise to the most dismal trage- 
dies, and leaving their names black with guilt 
which time can never wash away. In all their 
breathings there was no prayerful psalm rising to 
heaven from a penitential heart, " Deliver me from 
blood-guiltiness, God, thou God of my salvation. 
Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and 
cteanse me from my sin. Create in me a clean 
heart, God, and renew a right spirit within me." 
And how does this cry aloud to every parent to 
beware of tolerating in ourselves what we would 
not have continued and intensified in our children ! 
The evil that you may have almost overcome, may 
appear in your child, and prove its ruin. Let fa- 
thers and mothers dwell upon this lesson. Let 
them see a father's faults growing into his chil- 
dren's sins, and making his house gloomy with 
crime. Let them see his home robbed of its peace 
and joy ; his sensitive heart pierced through and 
through by the shameful conduct of his children ; 
his oldest son a profligate, and at last slain in a 
brother's revenge ; his Absalom a traitor and a 
daring rebel against his father, his king, and his 
God : and how even the " delight he had in Solo- 
mon, was only like the satisfaction of a parent 
standing on the bleak sea-shore, after a terrible 
ship-wreck, with but one child snatched from the 
cruel waves," and then they may be safely guarded 
against setting an evil example. They will be 



28 THE KEBEL PRINCE. 

careful not to vary one degree from the heaven- 
ward point of the compass, lest their children turn 
altogether aside unto destruction. "Of all the 
gloom which invests the future, no spot seems 
darker than that at which a worldly father is 
to meet his ruined child — the child whom he him- 
self had professed and vowed to rear for Grod, and 
then led to destruction by walking before the little 
one in the broad road to death." Then must the 
wail break forth over the lost, " my son Absa- 
lom, my son, my son Absalom ! would God I had 
died for thee, Absalom, my son, my son !" 

Thirdly, David's best resolutions seem to have 
been formed too late to remedy the evils that had 
grown up in his house. It was perhaps his pain- 
ful experience, and the revival of divine grace in 
his heart, that led him nobly to resolve upon an 
example consistent with his precepts. For he said, 
" I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. I 
will walk within my house with a perfect heart. 
He that worketh deceit shall not dwell in my 
house ; he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my 
sight." (Psalm ci.) 

As he proposes also to " cut off all wicked doers 
from the city of the Lord" we may infer that 
these resolutions were formed after he was fully 
established in Jerusalem. Before they became a 
law in his house, Amnon and -Absalom may have 
laid the foundations of their characters, and passed 
on into the sins of their youth too far to be re- 



ABSALOM THE INDULGED SON. 29 

claimed. His rules seem to have been like ex post 
facto laws — made after the crimes had been com- 
mitted, and they could not reach back and prevent 
the errors of his children. The right laws of fa- 
mily government should be adopted before the chil- 
dren know either good or evil, for prevention may 
secure them against sins, for which there is no hu- 
man remedy after they have become confirmed 
habits. 

There is another way to learn what were David's 
later laws of home. Solomon felt and remembered 
their power over him in his earliest years. " I de- 
tect myself to this day," wrote Cecil, "in laying 
down maxims in my family which I took up at 
three or four years of age, before I could possibly 
know the reason of them." They had been paren- 
tal rules. By this method, as well as by inspira- 
tion, Solomon doubtless derived those proverbs for 
the guidance of children, which cannot fail if 
rightly applied, for, " Train up a child in the way 
he should go ; and when he is old he will not de- 
part from it." He says, " I was my father's son, 
tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. 
He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine 
heart retain my words ; keep my commandments, 
and live." 

The career of Solomon was far nobler than that 
of Absalom. He had a better mother, the excel- 
lent Bath-sheba, whom the Rabbins describe as "a 
woman of vast information and a highly cultivated 
3 * 



30 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

mind, to whose education Solomon owed much of 
his wisdom and reputation, and even a great part 
of the practical philosophy embodied in the Pro- 
verbs." But may we not infer that Solomon had 
the benefit of his father's revised code of laws for 
the family, which were introduced too late to have 
their proper force in restraining and guiding Ab- 
salom ? Late laws are better than none, for, 
though they may not correct the errors of the past, 
they may prevent the evils of the future. 

Fourthly. It does not seem that David applied 
his rules strictly to his older sons. Faults in his 
example stand out boldly on the inspired record. 
Amnon was deceitful, and still he dwelt in the 
royal house. Absalom told lies, and still he tar- 
ried in David's sight. 

The resolutions of our better moments, when 
grace is revived in the heart, are apt to be ne- 
glected in seasons when piety is declining, and we 
are falling from our steadfastness. TVas it thus 
with David, a man like us by nature, and as much 
in need of daily grace ? "Was his soul like ours, 
yesterday warmed with holy fire, and to-day cold 
in worldliness ? Had great prosperity an inju- 
rious effect upon his fervour of spirit, as we so of- 
ten find it? Having conquered the nation's foes, 
did he cease for a little to make God his shield 
against all spiritual enemies ? Xow, that the 
pressure of his former distresses was removed, did 
he relax his close walk with God, and allow him- 



ABSALOM THE INDULGED SON. 31 

self to be borne down the stream of his natural in- 
clinations ? Had he fallen into a luxurious self-in- 
dulging mood? We know how it is with ourselves, 
and how the family rules adopted in times of re- 
vival, when anxious for the salvation of our chil- 
dren, are apt to be neglected when faith grows 
feeble and our hearts are cold. Just when our 
children most need the kind administration of pa- 
rental laws, we are likely to be most lax in their 
application. 

Fifthly, We have evidence of David's over-indul- 
gence towards his children, and here the best of 
men are most liable to fail. He had an excessive 
tenderness of heart, and doubtless of manner. It 
is not possible, in one sense, to have feelings too 
tender, or a government too kind. But it is possi- 
ble to allow an excessive gentleness to interfere 
with other principles that must have their force in 
the successful management of a house. Parents 
must sometimes defeat the plans of their children, 
disappoint their hopes, deny their requests, check 
them in their indulgences, and correct them by 
rightful discipline. Some have not the moral cour- 
age to do this, and cherish the hope that milder 
methods will prevail, and that somehow soft per- 
suasion and tearful entreaty will come at last to 
have a meaning, and make a restraining impression. 
Eli, and Samuel, and David, seem to have erred 
upon this point. They were indulgent. We read 
of one of David's children, that, " his father had 



32 THE REBEL PRIXCE. 

never displeased him at any time, saying, "Where- 
fore hast thou done so?"* This was Adonijah, 
next in age to Absalom. It was he that attempted 
a new rebellion on the model of Absalom's, but 
with more crafty management. His father allowed 
him to run on in his wilful and ambitious way, un- 
til the dire effects of parental indulgence came like 
a sweeping storm upon him in his old age, turning 
his home into a scene of rivalry and strife, of plots 
and counterplots, until the heart sickens at such 
conduct in the house of a man of God. 

You may say that David's " failings leaned to 
virtue's side," and so they did, for tenderness is a 
grace to be sought from Grod, but they leaned so 
hard against paternal virtue, that it was almost 
pushed over into the dust. Too far east is west, 
and too great tenderness is cruelty when it ruins a 
child by indulgence. The Lord does not say of 
Abraham, I know that he will entreat his children, 
and beg with tears, and plead with wringing hands, 
and after all indulge them, but he says, " I know 
that he will command them !" He will have order 
and discipline. " And they shall keep the way of 
the Lord, to do justice and judgment." 

Sixthly, To indulgence was added favouritism. 
It was David's nature to have some special favour- 
ite, for he could not enjoy life without having some 

* 1 Kings i. 6. 

For further proof of David's readiness to yield to the requests of 
his children, see 2 Samuel xiii. 6, 7 ; 23-27 ; xiv. 32 ; xv. 7-9. 



ABSALOM THE INDULGED SON. 33 

one on whom to pour the utmost tenderness of his 
affection. Once it was Jonathan, now Absalom. 

It is sometimes urged that a young man is 
brought up too strictly ; there is too much restrain- 
ing, and hampering, and hedging in ; too much 
catechism and Bible, and urging to church when he 
does not wish to go. He is tethered at home, and 
must associate with his father and mother, and 
keep good hours, and remember the Sabbath-day 
to keep it holy. He cannot learn the ways of the 
world, nor study human nature, by mingling with 
the companions of his choice. Many a sneer is 
thus cast upon the old Puritanic and Presbyterian 
modes of family instruction and government. 

But under what other system were such men and 
women ever produced ? Such examples of integ- 
rity and unwavering principles ? Such minds 
stored with the Bible, that the ploughboy or the 
weaver could hold a close argument with the doc- 
tors of a perverted theology ; such hearts of bene- 
volence, blessed of all for the purest outgoings of 
charity ; such spirits strong in the faith that over- 
comes the world and lays hold on heaven ; such 
heroic souls, that if patriotism required it, they 
offered themselves in sacrifice for the defence of 
the land and the liberty they loved ; or if truth 
demanded that one die for it, they were ready for 
the martyrdom ? From what other homes ever 
went forth such moral giants into this earth of 
ours ? Of whom the world was not worthy, and 



34 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

they left us, and the land grows scarce of them. 
Until we resort to the same system of godly homes, 
and establish " God's first church," as it was 
handed down from Eden, we shall never see their 
like again. With such homes, there would be 
" such a church in our land as would make it a 
praise throughout the whole earth," and such a 
land that it might, well be called Immanuel's. 

Under such training there was a strong guard 
against indulgence and favouritism. But let those 
who ridicule the strictness of the olden times, and 
who plead for a method in whose excessive mild- 
ness all true government is lost, and religious dis- 
cipline ignored, have the benefit of an example 
furnished by the laxer system. There he is, Ab- 
salom ! Why did not unmingled tenderness win 
his heart, and special affection secure his obedi- 
ence ? If ever this method had a fair trial, it was 
then, and the result was, a gifted youth hurrying 
on to the commission of sin, and driven on to reap 
its wages in death. 

Seventhly, Perhaps David regarded home as a 
place of rest and enjoyment, rather than a school 
of instruction, and a church for worship. Men who 
are burdened with the cares of business, and of 
office, % or daily are worn and weary by labour, are 
prone to this error. 

From shops and fields, from courts and camps they come, 
To rest their care-worn hearts and weary heads at home. 

And well they may. It ought so to be. But 



ABSALOM THE INDULGED SON. 35 

rest is not found in an ungoverned family. Dis- 
order and disobedience must prevent relaxation and 
enjoyment. The happiest relief from public duties 
and personal toils, is to find in a cheerful house, 
obedient children, loving friends, and much of what 
can make it the earthly type of that future home 
in the Father's mansions. 

Do not urge that court-life, the perplexities of 
kingship, and the rackings of a royal mind, were 
an excuse for neglecting the pure example and the 
godly teachings needed by the sons of David. As 
well might the exhausting public labours of our 
Lord have induced him, in his weariness, to refrain 
from instructing his disciples privately in the 
things pertaining to the kingdom of God. It was 
under Oliver Cromwell that England became a 
might and a glory in the earth. He ruled the na- 
tion in the kingly spirit of David, and yet was a 
model in the government of his family. And on 
England's throne, to-day, there sits the noblest 
queen that the world ever saw ; remarkable for the 
moral power she holds over the realm, the purity 
of her court, and the Christian teaching which she 
imparts, from her own lips, to her children. And 
until lately there was a moral power behind that 
throne — a Prince Albert worthy of universal hon- 
our, and a man of enterprise and constant exertion. 
He instructed and corrected his children as princely 
father rarely ever did, and in his home he wore 
that paternal crown better than ever shaded the 



6b THE REBEL PRINCE. 

brow of a nation's monarch, and second only to 
that which he has, doubtless, already received from 
his Redeemer's hands. And if ever there be an 
Amnon at that court ; if ever an Absalom rise up 
among the princes of that house, it will not be from 
any glaring defects in the royal example, nor from 
any deficiency of parental teachings, nor from the 
want of any reasons for heartfelt and lasting gra- 
titude. 

If king David came from the court, the camp, or 
the tabernacle, it was his duty to see that this fa- 
vourite son was rightly taught and wisely disci- 
plined. Yet that was the very hour when his 
bright boy would crave indulgence. It is the dan- 
gerous hour when many a father spoils his child. 
Yet let us not sit in judgment upon David, the no- 
blest man, and the most thoroughly Christian, por- 
trayed in the Old Testament. Nay, he will judge 
us ; we have more light than he enjoyed ; we have 
better opportunities ; we are not kings. We have 
accumulated warnings ; we have Absalom before 
us. We have purer examples ; our Lord has lived 
on the earth. And shall David rise up to condemn 
us in the last day? On his dying-bed he could 
not but glance back upon his home. " The thought 
of disorder there added one pang more to the dy- 
ing monarch's sorrow, and the complaint uttered 
with some of his last breaths was, that his house 
was not right with God." Shall this be true of 
us ? After he has shown us that failures may arise 



ABSALOM THE INDULGED SON. 37 

out of the most tender affection, and that the pur- 
est love may be perverted, shall we shiver this ark 
of a Christian home upon the strand of an incon- 
sistent example, or the fatal rock of parental in- 
dulgence ? 

I have seen a buoy anchored just over a danger- 
ous breaker in the ship's road, rising and rocking 
by the swell of the tide or the beat of the storm, 
and in it a bell that struck its mournful warnings 
as it reeled to and fro, when the morn was misty 
or the night was dark. And as the captain was 
running his vessel into port he listened for the 
stroke of that bell in order to escape the ruin in 
which others had been involved. 

There is a buoy anchored just over this rock of 
parental indulgence, and the bell, whose every 
stroke is like a wail over the dead, is loudly ring- 
ing its warning in our ears. It is the Voice of Ab- 
salom the indulged child, who made shipwreck of 
energies that might have become powerful for 
good, and of a soul freighted with some of the 
highest natural endowments. 
4 



38 THE REBEL PRINCE. 



CHAPTER III. 

The Sinner's Victory. 

Yle are not worst at once. The course of evil 
Begins so slowly, and from such small source, 
An infant's hand might stem the breach with clay ; 
But let the stream get deeper, and philosophy, 
Age, and religion, too, shall strive in vain 
To turn the headlong torrent. 

Admitting the force of David's errors in family 
government, we must remember that Absalom was 
not compelled to give them the controlling influ- 
ence in the formation of his character. Why did 
he not avoid that which his own conscience con- 
demned, and follow that which his best judgment 
approved ? He must have known that his father's 
faults were greatly overbalanced by his excellen- 
cies. Was he excused, — is any young man now 
excused, by saying, " There are faults in my fa- 
ther's conduct and character" ? Surely not, for a 
personal responsibility rests upon every son, what- 
ever be the errors of a parent. 

Even suppose that David had been destitute of 
those godly virtues which so vastly preponderate in 
his character, and had been positively wicked, this 



THE sinner's victory. 39 

would not be an apology for Absalom in throwing 
off the better influences that surrounded him, and 
in steeling his heart against the power of the truth, 
of conscience, and of the Spirit of God. Who lays 
all the blame upon the godless Rehoboam, in ac- 
counting for the fact that his son Abijam " walked 
in all the sins of his father which he had done be- 
fore him" ? Upon Abijam must rest the greater 
blame for the course he took. The son of a wicked 
man is responsible for being like his father. 

From the homes of godless men have sometimes 
come forth sons who have feared, loved and served 
the Lord. Ahaz was the most unlike David, and 
the most corrupt king that had sat upon Judah's 
throne, respecting neither the Lord, the law, nor 
the prophets. Yet his son Hezekiah avoided the 
sins of his father, and became eminent as a king 
and as a saint. So with Asa. Josiah too had an 
impious and idolatrous father, but shunning the 
royal example, he accepted God as the guide of his 
youth ; and this young king was in Judah what 
Edward the Sixth was in England, the marvel of 
history. Why did not Absalom form such a char- 
acter, and qualify himself to do that which was 
right in the sight of the Lord ? 

The case is much stronger against Absalom, 
when we take into account his father's eminent 
piety and devotion to the church of God. The son 
of every Christian father is greatly responsible for 
the course he takes in life. Who charges upon 



40 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

John Howard all the blame for the reckless course 
taken by his only son ? That son first allowed 
himself to become " a prey to those who combine 
artfulness with vice;" then he let a contempt for 
his father creep into his heart; then he formed 
vicious habits, and at last he ran swiftly into men- 
tal and moral ruin. 

Who was ever heard to apologize for Absalom ? 
Even Judas, the thief and the traitor, has found an 
apologist, in our day, who attempts to palliate his 
conduct in betraying our Lord for thirty pieces of 
silver. But no one raises a mild plea for this first 
great rebel in Israel. 

We have no sight of him during the younger 
years when he was forming his habits, and deter- 
mining his character. We do not see him growing 

C CO 

worse and worse by slow degrees. We do not see 
evil associations gradually gathering around him, 
and gaining upon him by insinuation, by allure- 
ment, by bolder temptations, and by boon com- 
panionships. But when he first appears in history, 
he stands before us complete in character, accom- 
plished in artifices, cool and hardy in revenges, 
daring in his policies, and desperate in hazarding 
liberty and life. And why ? How has he come 
to such a high pitch of heartless wickedness ? How 
have his features become so fixed that he can go 
unblushiDg into crime, and his nerves so like 
" strings of steel"' that he can deliberately plan 
and execute a murder ? Ah ! he has had a victory 



THE SINNER'S VICTORY. 41 

— one that hundreds are, to-day, struggling to 
gain. It is the sinner s victory ! 

Such coolness and self-complacency, such readi- 
ness for iniquity and boldness in it, such bravery 
against the fear of justice, and such deliberate vio- 
lation of the law of God, were not born in Absa- 
lom, nor in any one now who has reached the point 
where history and justice began with him. They 
were acquired. They cost many a struggle, and 
much fighting against conscience, truth, and God. 
Depraved as we all are by birth, no one in his first 
years is so desperate that he can commit the crimes 
of Absalom with his self-possession and hardihood. 
That face blushed in infancy, which now is bronzed 
in manhood. He once was sensitive, who now is 
"past feeling." There is a class of sins peculiar 
to children, less heinous than those which are pe- 
culiar to men. There may be " precocious depra- 
vity," but in the sinner, generally, it is something 
that " grows with his growth, and strengthens with 
his strength." There is an onward march in sin 
as well as in grace. There is a victory for the sin- 
ner over the good, the true, and the holy, as well 
as a triumph for the Christian over the evil, the 
false, and the tempting. What then does every 
young man do, who attains to a character such as 
we find in Absalom when he entered upon the ca- 
reer which the God of inspiration has deemed it 
wise to portray for our instruction? What is the 

sinner's victory? 
4 * 



42 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

First. He conquers much in himself. Not the 
evil, not the predisposition to be a wanderer from 
the path of duty and of life, not the natural indiffer- 
ence to religion, nor the depravities that cannot be 
expelled except by the Holy Spirit, but he overcomes 
the better tendencies which God has given to restrain 
and direct him. Once he felt the power of con- 
science, of fear, and of love. They caused his 
blood to bound through all his being when he 
thought of committing a known sin. His heart 
beat in fear, conscience burned in his breast, his 
mind was restless, and his cheek flushed as he 
sought for courage to perform an evil deed. Con- 
victions often ran, like lightning, through his soul. 
He started from his dreamy sleep as if he heard 
the voice of God. And when putting forth his 
hand to sin, he glanced with restless eye on every 
side to see if any human witness was looking on, 
and he had to fight that piercing thought, "Thou, 
God, seest me!" It was a struggle against all his 
better convictions, and against everything that re- 
presented God in his soul. And after occasional 
sins became habits, he tried not to feel any con- 
victions of conscience, but still the arrows of the 
Almighty went shivering through his soul. Thus 
the battle went on, until at length the baser pas- 
sions of his nature rose to help him in the struggle. 
They stifled conscience. They put down his self- 
respect. They drowned the memories of truth. 
They drove out the fear of God. 



THE sinner's victory. 43 

And now he can sin boldly, coolly, deliberately. 
He has hardened himself to iniquity. If conscience 
reprove, he knows how to sear it until it shall trouble 
him no more. If fears arise, he can lull them to 
sleep. If shame burn in his heart, he can quench 
its fire. This is one victory. 

Secondly. He overcomes the influences of the 
truth, and the effect of church ordinances. The 
law of God must often have been read in the ears 
of Absalom. The young Hebrew could scarcely 
have passed a day without hearing the word of the 
Lord from parent, prophet, or priest. The taber- 
nacle invited him to come to the altars of God, 
not only with a lamb, but with the sacrifices of a 
broken heart and a contrite spirit. The cloud of 
incense invited him to prayer, and voices of song 
to praise. If he needed instruction or advice, there 
was the good Nathan, who seems to have been the 
prophet of the court, and tutor of the king's sons. 
How could he go on unaffected by all these privi- 
leges, unless he made an effort to resist them? 

Many a one now hardens himself to resist the 
appeals and persuasions that fell from the lips of 
the Son of God, and that still are urged by 
the ministers of truth. He triumphs over them. 
He castles himself in cold indifference, and fortifies 
his soul with excuses, or doubts, or delusions. He 
bars the door against the entrance to that word 
which giveth light. He sets his shield against the 
arrow drawn from the gospel quiver, and smiles to 



44 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

see it fall shattered at his feet. He boasts that 
preaching which arouses others does not affect him. 
Men wonder at his coolness, but he admires their 
astonishment. No exhortation disturbs his com- 
posure, no 'entreaty softens his heart. Not even 
does the word judgment, or eternity, stir a ripple 
on the smooth surface of his thoughts. This is 
another victory, gained by the power of his resis- 
tance. 

Thirdly. He conquers the influence of parents, 
friends, and godly associates. Their kindness is 
abused. The tenderness of David toward Absa- 
lom would have had a good effect, had not the son, 
in his perversity, taken advantage of it. He de- 
spised the riches of such human goodness, forbear- 
ance and long-suffering. He overcame the force 
of love, entreaty and persuasions. When a young 
man can do this, he is not far from ruin. "He 
that hateth reproof shall die." When too late, he 
may exclaim in his remorse, " How have I hated 
instruction, and my heart despised reproof, and 
have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor in- 
clined mine ear to them that instructed me!" 

In the dens of many an infamous lane, in many 
a pestilential cellar, in many a prison's gloomy 
cell, on the deck of many a pirate ship, in many a 
robber's cave or counterfeiter's garret, and on 
many a strange shore whither the guilty have fled 
from a justice whose eye was on the watch and 
whose feet were shod for swift pursuit, may be 



THE sinner's victory. 45 

found one who once had a kind and Christian home 
but rebelled against its peaceful government, and 
casting away the Bible, and trying to expunge every 
memory of godly counsels and tearful prayers, ran 
to an excess of riot, bringing a father's gray hairs 
in sorrow to the grave, and driving a mother to a 
refuge in God's mercy, that she might find some 
relief from the anguish caused by an ungrateful, 
wandering child. 

Fourthly. He overcomes the impressions made 
upon his soul by the providences of God. Once 
every unusual mercy or event affected him, but now 
the blessings of Heaven come and go, and he 
scarcely recognizes them. The goodness of God 
does not lead him to repentance. Judgments may 
be abroad, but he does not learn righteousness. 
Sickness does not enforce upon him -the solemnities 
of death, judgment, and eternity. Losses on earth 
do not cause him to seek after treasures in heaven. 
A death is not heard saying to him, "prepare to 
meet thy God." These impressions he has over- 
come. They pass unheeded by, a,nd he remains the 
same. 

Fifthly. He succeeds in resisting the Spirit of 
God. Often has the heavenly Dove descended 
upon him, but he has grieved him away. Often 
has the Spirit's flame been kindled, but he has 
quenched it. Perhaps the Holy Spirit no longer 
strives with him, and he is left to follow the way 
that he has chosen. 



46 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

This may appear very bold and brave. It may 
seem to be the mighty strength of a successful op- 
position. It may seem the achievement of inde- 
pendence and liberty. But it is really the most 
daring of all rebellions. Absalom's first great re- 
bellion was against God. 

It is a fearful thing to reach that point in cha- 
racter when truth, holy ordinances, Christian 
friendships, and the Holy Ghost seem to make no 
impression upon the soul. So long as these had 
any power over Absalom, he could not be the young 
man that we find him when he first appears in his- 
tory. We do not say that he took just the steps 
we have described, but we do say that any young 
man who takes them, will reach his point in hard- 
ness of heart. 

How often a newspaper brings before us the 
name of a young man heretofore unknown to the 
world, but all at once made notorious ! Yet you 
know that the first crime that goes upon the public 
record is not really the first in his life, nor the 
only one written in the book of God. You know 
that he has long been preparing for it ; seasoning, 
hardening, and growing toward it. For conscience, 
reason, self-respect, honour to parents,* regard for 
society, fear of law, reverence for the Bible and 
for God, were enough to have held him in restraint. 
Any one of them was enough to check him, and 
surely all of them combined were sufficient to have 
strengthened him against the temptations to crime. 



THE sinner's victory. 47 

And they would have so proved, had he not over- 
come their power. It was his victory. 

Fearful triumph ! For he has not conquered sin. 
Nay, it has dominion over him. He may be given 
over to reap for ever what he has sown. He may 
overcome the means and agencies of grace, but he 
cannot conquer Jehovah ! He must come at last 
to a point where he cannot succeed, and that point 
is the Divine Justice. Before it he must break 
down, and let it rule over him for ever. "It is a 
fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living 
God !" May he save us from Absalom's first great 
error and rebellion ! 

Far be it from us to say that Absalom had fully 
attained to such hardness of heart, that he was left 
entirely to himself, and that it was too late for him 
to repent. Nor would we declare of any one liv- 
ing that the Spirit of God had taken from his soul 
his everlasting flight. Some who long indulged 
their evil natures, long resisted holy influences, and 
seemed to have overcome conscience, truth, love, 
and persuasion, have at length ceased fighting 
against God, and have permitted King Jesus to 
rule over them. We know the story of the prodi- 
gal son. We remember Augustine and Newton. 
We are told of one who went so far that "the 
standard of home was no longer in his mind ; he 
defied the restraints of a widowe^ mother, and fled 
from her vicinity that he might not be hampered 
by her urgency or example. For two years he led 



48 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

a guilty wanderer's life. But on one occasion, 
during his Sabbath orgies, he was invited by an 
aged believer to enter a house of God which he was 
passing, in company with one as lawless as him- 
self. The suggestion awoke for a moment the re- 
collection of former days. He complied, and the 
sight of parents with their children worshipping 
their God, did for him what hunger did for the pro- 
digal son. The past affected the present, and the 
wayward youth was reclaimed." He passed through 
a severe struggle, but gained the victory. At 
length he went to Africa as a missionary, where he 
tried to win souls as he had once tried to ruin his 
own. 

Is anything too hard for God ? "Will not Christ 
save even unto the uttermost, them that call upon 
him ? Let every one answer such questions on the 
side of hope and mercy, yet may we all remember 
at what a fearful risk one may resist the truth and 
the Holy Ghost. There may still be those of whom 
God declares, " For that they hated knowledge, 
and did not choose the fear of the Lord; they 
would none of my counsel ; they despised all 
my reproof; therefore shall they eat of the fruit 
of their own way and be filled with their own de- 
vices." 

There is another victory — one for him who in 
God's name and help, conquers the evil in himself, 
and the temptations around him, putting sin, and 
death, and hell under his feet. He triumphs by 



THE sinner's victory. 49 

faith, obedience, love and prayer ; and his life- 
thought and death-song will be in all conflicts and 
sufferings, " In all these things we are conquerors, 
yea, more than conquerors through him that loved 
us!" 

A single sentence was once heard falling from 
the lips of an earnest man. It was, " Lord, 
give me another victory !" He had certainly 
gained one triumph. Was it over passion ? Over 
an evil thought ? Over the temptations of avarice ? 
Over resentment ? Over the tendency to neglect 
an important duty ? Over an old habit ? We 
know not. But he had evidently wrestled against 
more than flesh and blood, and triumphed by the 
power of God's grace and Spirit. From the battle- 
field of his own soul he had come off the victor. 
Alexander was never so happy, for Alexander 
never conquered himself. 

And now some other attack was feared. He 
saw the conflict before him, and the strength of 
his foe. Could he resist it ? Could he drive the 
enemy from the field ? Must he be overcome of 
evil ? Could he overcome evil with good ? There 
was danger, and looking above for help, he prayed, 
"0 Lord, give me another victory!" 

These victories ! They are the means of growth, 
strength, assurance and rejoicing. Gain one, and 
the next is more easy. Not an hour will pass but 
we shall have some besetting sin haunting us, some 
old habit on our track, some splendid cheat of the 



50 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

tempter alluring us. some forbidden thought, emo- 
tion, or purpose plotting to betray us. and some 
innate depravity warring against us ; and then we 
shall need to pray for another victory. 

These triumphs ! They are not heralded in the 
papers, nor do men hasten to the "Xews-ofhces"' 
to learn the result of the last struggle for a soul. 
They are written in the Book of Life. They are 
published in heaven, and angels rejoice over one 
sinner who has gained a triumph over the destroyer. 
<; Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory 
through our Lord Jesus Christ!" 



ABSALOM THE LAWLESS AVENGER. 51 



CHAPTER IV. 

Absalom the Lawless Avenger. 

Even nature will exceed herself, to tell 
A crime so thwarting nature. 

Many of the worst and oftenest committed sins 
are those which must be pointed out only by the 
most delicate reference ; hinted, rather than 
broadly named. It is not always a mere fastidious 
taste that requires this, but a high moral sense of 
propriety. 

And yet the delicate portrayal may be the more 
dangerous method, for vice may be clothed in at- 
tractive beauty. Lord Byron drew so fair a pic- 
ture of licentiousness that it charms rather than 
warns his more susceptible admirers. Shakspeare 
had a way of bluntly saying just what he meant, 
and he makes this vice appear shameful, disgust- 
ing, detestable, and utterly execrable. You are 
not offended with him, but you want the odious 
sin driven from the earth. It is well that the Bi- 
ble is a plain book, and gives every sin its right 
name, or some vices might not receive their proper 
treatment in dainty times. 



52 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

The first chapter of Absalom's career is re- 
corded as with the point of a diamond, guided by 
the most delicate hand. It is hard to make a bad 
thing look well, even in the wisest words. The 
abominable deed of Amnon is described as tenderly 
as the gross subject would permit. If any sup- 
pose it not fit to be publicly read, surely it is unfit 
to be privately imitated. 

Yet inspired wisdom has given us this chapter in 
the bold and fearless march of truth. What merely 
human writer would have placed it in a book to be 
the moral guide in all nations and ages? Any 
mere moralist would have shrunk from the tempest 
of scorn and reviling which such a page would 
draw upon it ; or trembled lest the evil effects of 
the story would overbalance the good. "None 
but God could have the fearless fortitude to place 
in the Holy Bible this narrative of sin and shame." 
He knew it would be needed even where civiliza- 
tion holds her sway, lest society should imagine 
that vices are cured when they are only concealed, 
and men should still commit "the oldest sins in 
newest kind of ways." 

It may surprise us that this nameless sin, against 
which God saw best to publish the seventh com- 
mandment, is not yet driven out of civilized society, 
and far across the borders of Christendom. It 
may surprise us, that, with all this delicate taste 
there is not true refinement enough to make it so 
rare in every community, that none need longer to 



ABSALOM THE LAWLESS AVENGER. 53 

cry aloud and spare not. It stands as one of the 
most frequent on the records of crime. It is one 
of the most common of those which are published 
every week. It withers and blasts a large amount 
of the strength of our land. It stalks abroad in 
the open day; shows its shameless front on our 
streets; sets its decoys and encouragements in 
almost every secular newspaper ; bids for new vic- 
tims in most of our "dailies" — flings even a bolder, 
profaner literature before thousands of our youth, 
and presents the most formidable temptations 
which they have to encounter. Nor does it lurk 
alone in the lower ranks of society; it steals in 
upon high life, and high position, creeping into 
marble halls and stately palaces. It fastens upon 
the gifted and the gay, the accomplished and the 
honourable, and makes an utter waste of their be- 
ing. It is to-day running riot over health and 
happiness, over law and life. It is dogging the 
soldier with the tiger's stealthy tread, and whis- 
pering in the ear of the unsuspecting student. It 
is scattering its poison everywhere, until poverty 
and prisons help to declare the extent of its power. 
Yet it cries out that it must be let alone, because 
it is oifensive to lift aloud the warning voice ! Our 
Lord declared against it in the plainest terms, and 
we cannot be charged with going beyond the 
bounds of prudence if we follow his example, and 
that of his apostles. We must speak, while it 
rages, for it hardens the heart, more than almost 
5 * 



54 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

any other sin. against the very gospel which is 
proclaimed to reform, regenerate, and restore the 
guilty to the favour of God. There can be no 
prevalent morality where it is tolerated; no - 
virtues where it is not branded with inf., i 

It may surprise us that in the commission of 
jin there can be so much coolness and delibe- 
ration. There may be some extenuation if the act 
be impulsive, and the temptation come suddenly 
with almost resistless power. But too often a 
crime has no such apology. It has been thought 
of. and deliberately planned. Im d has 

dwelt upon it. Even the counsel of some base 
Jonadab has been gladly received. It has been 
talked about with a third party in the plot. Far 
gone must he be, who can : I : : : n : ssary in 
a crime abhorrent to all decency and self-respect ! 
Amnon's crime was not simply an unguarded act: 
it was one of the coolest ever committed. None 
but an adept in th vice, who had by slow 

degrees reached this extravagant pitch of heart- 
lessness. could have so deliberately carried out his 
villainous designs. 

:_. then, this victimize!' while you pity 
the unsus} I you are not astonished 

at the record, that "when King David heard of all 
these things h ry wroth.*' He had reason 

to be. It was a burning disgrace. It was a stain 
upon the family. It would excite the tongue of 
slander. It would be whispered in the city, and 



ABSALOM THE LAWLESS AVENGER. 55 

raise a noise at the court. No sin more readily 
arouses a disposition to avenge the injured and 
punish the guilty. No crime causes a parent or 
brother to feel more keenly what justice is, and 
how deserved is a righteous severity. You expect 
then that the king will bring from the Jewish law 
the terrible penalty of death, fixed by Jehovah, 
and then with Roman courage visit it upon the 
guilty though he be the eldest son, and the heir to 
the throne. For when men of mildness and ex- 
treme tenderness are once provoked by justice, 
they punish with unflinching rigor. With them 
anger is the "resentful spark that flies from the 
struck shield," and him on whom it falls it burns 
with punishment. 

But no! David was "very wroth" — that was 
all. He did nothing. He must -have grieved un- 
speakably. He must have wished that he had 
more carefully disciplined his son ; wished that the 
awful thing had never happened : wished that it 
could be undone ; wished almost everything indeed, 
but yet he did nothing. Was he quite stupefied 
at finding that the evils pronounced by the prophet 
as a retribution upon himself, were falling thicker 
and heavier upon his family ? Was he so stunned 
that he could not lift his hand to punish ? Or was 
he so exceeding tender that he hoped milder mea- 
sures would secure a better result ? Was he blind 
to the fact that if this sin were not punished, an- 
other more desperate would follow ? And if sins 



56 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

went on redoubling, calamities would also be re- 
doubled, for if justice were left for God, it would 
be measured out in full upon crime ? Let the 
mantle of charity cover the king, while his heart is 
wrung with anguish and his eye is raining tears. 

Amnon goes on unarrested, unpunished. Per- 
haps he is not disgraced at court, nor refused the 
social attentions, (for we have seen it thus !) while 
Tamar remains desolate in her brother Absalom's 
house. We hear of her no more, unless in regard 
for her, Absalom calls a daughter by her name. 

At her the lip of Scorn may curl, 
At her Society may hurl 

Society's disdain. 

But there is one human eye fixed upon this 
guilty man ; there is one young prince who is de- 
termined that this outrage shall be avenged. And 
he is Absalom. At first sight we are almost ready 
to give him credit for a high sense of honour, and 
for a just indignation. For when he is the only one 
to whom an injured sister can look for protection, 
he offers her his guardianship, counsel, and home. 
Also the contempt which he showed towards his 
guilty half-brother, would seem almost honourable 
if he had aimed his hatred at the sin rather than at 
the sinner. "He hated Amnon." We do not 
wonder. He ought to have hated the crime, even 
while pretending to recognize the criminal as his 
brother. But this was too nice and moral a dis- 
tinction for him to perceive. 



ABSALOM THE LAWLESS AVENGER. 57 

If it were the sin that he desired punished, why 
not take up the law and bring the guilty to a legal 
trial ? Was the law against this great iniquity a 
dead letter ? Then what glory for him to bring it 
forth from its grave and restore it to life and 
power ! What a chance to prove himself a refor- 
mer of crime, a restorer of law, an upholder of jus- 
tice, an advocate of the wronged, and a terror to 
evil-doers ! What a judge he might have been, as 
he afterwards wished to be ! The path was open, 
but he slighted this opportunity of entering upon a 
noble career. 

But he was not frowning with intolerance upon 
the sin ; he hated Amnon. It was not, therefore, 
legal justice that he sought, but private revenge. 
Silently he brooded over the wrong, and under the 
guise of honour he plotted a brother's death. 
From the hour of the outrage he determined that 
Amnon should die. "If the mode of settling such 
affairs by the duel had been known among the He- 
brews we might expect to find it here, for Absalom 
was the very man, and this the very time, for him 
to have sent the offender a challenge. Arguments 
have been urged for this murderous way of settling 
disputes. A system of rules has been laid down 
for conducting it. It has even been called by the 
dignified title of the " code of honour" ! Under 
this pretentious name it has prevailed in our land. 
But its apologists could never cite a case from the 
Bible, and wrest it as many have done the Scrip- 



58 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

tures to support a great sin. No longer let it be 
regarded as chivalrous, but barbarous, inhuman, 
murderous. 

Was it revenge alone that was prompting Absa- 
lom in all his quiet plans ? There seems to be a 
deeper motive for this hushed wrath, this pretended 
sense of honour, this cautious policy. There seems 
to be something else nurturing in this cunning mind 
and crafty heart. 

The throne — that seems the object of his ambi- 
tion. Dr. Kitto says, " He intended to make his 
revenge effectual, and to use it for clearing his way 
to the throne. We cannot but think that he had 
already taken up the design upon the kingdom 
which he eventually carried out, and that, as Am- 
non was his elder brother and the heir- apparent, 
he meant to use his private wrong as the excuse 
for removing so serious an obstacle from his path. 
But to this end it was necessary that the king, as 
well as Amnon, should be lulled into the conviction 
that he had no thoughts of revenge, and that the 
matter had gone from his mind." 

And now see the wary, wily politician of the un- 
scrupulous school ; the man who makes any means 
foul or fair aid him in reaching his ambitious ends ; 
the man who watches and waits for the favourable 
moment when he may strike the decisive blow, and 
remove the barrier to his hopes. Ambition is 
wrong when it aims at a wrong object, and goes 
upon the principle of making the end justify the 



ABSALOM THE LAWLESS AVENGER. 59 

means. It is then a cruel passion, clutching at 
what other persons possess, crowding them from 
the places they deserve to hold, trampling upon 
their rights, and sometimes making crime the way 
to power. It has strong temptations for every 
young man among us, and he must be well fortified 
by religious principles who can resist it. Dr. Pay- 
son, after reading certain biographies, wrote thus 
to a young man : " Two of these characters agreed 
in saying that they were never happy until they 
ceased striving to be great men. The remark 
struck me, as you know the most simple remark 
will, when God pleases. It occurred to me at 
once, that most of my sorrows and sufferings were 
occasioned by my unwillingness to be the nothing 
that I am, and by a constant striving to be some- 
thing. I saw that if I would but cease struggling, 
and be content to be anything or nothing, as God 
pleases, I might be happy." Here religious prin- 
ciples had not been laid aside. What then of that 
ambition in which they are ignored, and, 

Faith, honor, justice, gratitude and friendship 
Discharged at once ? 

Absalom must first take time: Rashness and 
sudden impulse might defeat his plans. He must 
appear quite indifferent to the outrage committed. 
And he takes time. Two full years pass away. 
He speaks not a word to Amnon, good or bad, lest 
they may wrangle and bring on the crisis at the 
wrong hour. Policy can keep his anger from boil- 



60 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

ing over, and defeating a calmly-plotted scheme. 
And on that silent wrath the sun goes down every 
day for two years. If there be such danger, as 
the Apostle Paul intimated, in letting the sun go 
down one day upon a man's wrath, — for thus he is 
giving place to the devil — then what would more 
than seven hundred sunsets do ? Absalom must 
be giving a large place in his heart to the devil, 
and becoming full of his wiles. He can plan a 
successful tragedy. 

Next he must lull all suspicion. Not a whisper 
was breathed of his intentions. Probably not a 
man walked the streets of Jerusalem with a fairer 
speech than Absalom. Mercy for Amnon was on 
his lips, while murder was in his heart. No one 
suspects that when the fraternal " looks are sweet 
as summer, they will soon fall blighting and blast- 
ing as the winter frosts." 

Next he must find an occasion. He lays part 
of his plot in the country. Eight miles out he has 
an estate, and preparations are making for a great 
sheep-shearing festival. He now changes his po- 
licy, and all at once becomes very gracious and 
given to hospitality. He will play the friend, the 
forgiving brother, the affectionate son. He invites 
the king and all his sons, and urges their attend- 
ance. But David declines, for he prudently counts 
the cost, and wishes to save the prince the ruinous 
expense of a royal visit. It is a delicate hint upon 
economy. 



ABSALOM THE LAWLESS AVENGER. 61 

" Then let my brother Amnon go with us." The 
feast will be dull enough unless the heir-apparent 
be there ! King David does not suspect that the 
festival will be a funeral if he be there, and yet he 
has some misgivings. "Why should he go with 
thee?" Do you not remember? Are you not 
afraid to trust him ? Can you trust yourself when 
feasting with one that you have hated? But the 
smooth earnest words of Absalom lull the fears of 
the king, and gain the one thing without which all 
the plot must fail. Amnon goes to the festival like a 
fatted ox unconscious of the slaughter, and Absa- 
lom goes with his father's blessing upon him. Like 
this, perhaps, the benediction ran. 

" The Lord bless thee and keep thee : 
The Lord make his face to shine upon thee, 

And he gracious unto thee / 
The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, 

And give thee peace." 

Under the weight of a father's blessing Absalom 
hastes to the tragedy that he had planned. It re- 
minds us of the assassins — Gerard who stealthily 
murdered William the Silent, for example — who 
were shrived by a priest, and with his blessing 
upon them, walked boldly to plunge the dagger 
into the heart of the innocent. Absalom ! if thy 
father's hand and voice have been lifted upon thee, 
how darest thou fulfil thy plot ! 

Great was the feast, and the mirth ran high. 
Smiling servants were ready to strike or stab, and 
6 



THE REBEL PRIXCE. 

when " Amnou's heart was merry with wine. ' Ab- 
salom gave the word, ordering his men to be " cou- 
rageous and valiant," and the guilt y prince, who 
had gone two years safe from punishment for his 
heartless crime, was despatched by a brother who 
had deeply laid his plot, set the trap, sprung it 
upon his Tictim, and made himself a murderer ! 

It was an aggravation of this second great crime 
in David's family, that it was not only done by a 
brother, done in cold blood, and through treachery, 
but at the moment when Amnon was u least appre- 
hensive, least able to resist, and least fit to go out 
of the world." As if the avenger's malice aimed 
to -destroy both soul and body, without giving his 
victim opportunity to call for mercy from God with 
his last breath. Death, long devised and unsus- 
pected, fell upon him when he was overcharged 
with mirth and drunkenness. Thus the lawless 
criminal fell by lawless revenge. 

Here is a sin, with which the moral taste is not 
offended by the plainest speech. Xo delicacy is 
needed here. Horrible as it is, it can be named — 
murder. We are not likely to come in danger of 
this atrocious crime, but there are certain things 
very common among us, that have a murderous 
tendency. Hatred runs so strongly in this direc- 
tion that it is declared by Him who knows the hu- 
man heart, " He that hateth his brother is a mur- 
derer." 

There is a difference between sin and crime. Sin 



ABSALOM THE LAWLESS AVENGER. 63 

dwells in us, as a disposition to do evil. Crime is 
an act. Sin may lie in the nature, slumbering or 
suppressed. Crime is the outward development of 
the hidden depravity. God not only regards the 
criminal act, but the indwelling sin that leads to it. 
Both of the lawless crimes, so fearfully pictured in 
this chapter, proceed from the heart. In the pro- 
gress towards the first, there are various degrees 
of criminality. There are impure thoughts, imagi- 
nations, and suggestions. There are wicked covet- 
ings and the courting of temptation. And then 
the launching forth upon the dark tempestuous sea 
of piratical licentiousness. Few venture, without 
hurrying on to complete destruction. Few ever 
return from the presumptuous voyage. Erect all 
the light-houses you will upon safe shores, and 
make broad the harbours, yet very few will turn 
thither for salvation. How this dark sin declares 
to us in solemn warning, " Keep thy heart with all 
diligence." 

And this heart-depravity may develop toward 
murder. In its indulgence of envy, hatred and re- 
venge it is really wishing to take away another's 
happiness, and it may, possibly, go on in the same 
direction until it may take away another's life. 
The heart first slays, and then the hand finishes 
the victim. This, also, loudly proclaims, "Keep 
thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the 
issues of life." 

Every one who has a living conscience, and a 



64 THE REBEL PRi: 

love for social peace and safety, has a strong de- 
sire to see crime justly punished. A whole com- 
munity, often, rises up and demands it. Yet the 
executors of justice may. sometimes, be too 
or may blink at iniquity. The Amnons and the 
Absaloms may be permitted to go unarrested and 
unpunished. In such a case certain men take 
up the cause of the injured, on their own responsi- 
bility, and let a just resentment against the injurer 
grow into a dark revenge. This is a passion car- 
rying many a noble nature astray, and perpetually 
involving the human race in troubles. It is every- 
where, inspiring a large share of the injur:, 
flicted by one man upon another. Every lawyer 
can tell you that a great proportion of his clients 
king justice, but revenge. 

Generous souls may be infected with it. Robert 
the Bruce was generou-. :remely passionate, 

and in his rashness was unrelenting and cruel. 
With all his nobleness, he did not refrain from 
plunging the dagger into the heart of the treaeher- 
myn. even in the convent of the friars. And 
well does the historian note, that this rash revenge- 
ful deed was followed by the marked displeasure 
of Heaven, for no man ever went through more mis- 
fortunes when all the providences seemed arrayed 
against him. although he rose at last to exalted po- 
sition and honor. 

Reyeiigc seems to be the favourite passio:: 
dramatists, for it so naturally works up its own 



ABSALOM THE LAWLESS AVENGER. 65 

fearful tragedy that the writer may but record ac- 
tual realities, without inventing characters or deeds. 
It works up many an unwritten tragedy in social 
life. And is it not a sad proof of human depravity, 
that tragedies afford such natural pictures of hu- 
man nature ? Why must we say that they are so 
natural, so true to life ? Only because we see 
constantly so much of revenge and its terrible 
workings, that the worst deeds appear most life- 
like. Indeed it makes all history dramatic. What 
is past history but the plotting, the betraying, the 
avenging, and the murdering, which have kindled 
their quenchless fires through all ages ? Occasion- 
ally a heroic nature, a generous spirit, a magnani- 
mous character appear, but if revenge did not 
sometimes prompt them to ignoble deeds, they were 
at least forced to stand like a Tock against its 
shafts, so that they shattered where they struck. 

Let us not forget that the field is one on which 
we are often brought, and on which some of our 
best victories may be won. Seldom a day passes 
without an occasion for practising the advice, "Say 
not, I will do so to him as he hath done to me." 
One of the effects of a regenerating Christianity is 
the casting out of this evil spirit, and the introduc- 
tion of patience under injustice, and the forgive- 
ness of injuries. The battle fought on this field 
may not be attended with the honours of ordinary 
contests ; there are no medals, no stars of reward ; 
but they are registered in heaven, and to such vic- 
6 * 



66 THE REBEL PRINCE, 

tories, in part, is the promise made by the Captain 
of our salvation, " To him that overcometh, will I 
grant to sit with me on my throne, even as I also 
overcame and am set down with my Father on his 
throne." 

Yes, Jesus overcame. No malevolence dwelt in 
him ; no malice, no hatred, no disposition to revile 
when he was reviled, nor to call down fire from 
heaven upon those who shut their gates against 
him, nor to pray for vengeance upon those who 
crucified him, and mocked him upon the cross. 
"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ 
Jesus." 

These dark pictures so visible in the beginning 
of Absalom's career, cause us to turn to one drawn 
by a Saviour's hand, showing us, not only how to 
be guarded against every tendency to these enor- 
mous crimes, but to be regenerated from the de- 
pravities in which they originate, and sanctified 
from indwelling sin until the soul is made whiter 
than snow. " Blessed are the pure in heart, for 
they shall see God." 

They are not unwilling to have God see them. 
Beneath his eye they are full of light. The shin- 
ing in of the Sun of righteousness drives away the 
darkness and the pestilential vapour that have lain 
upon the soul. Every passion, that, like a wild 
beast of the night, has been ravening for its prey, 
is banished, and the heart is made to bloom like 
Eden, and flourish as the garden of the Lord. The 



ABSALOM THE LAWLESS AVENGER. 67 

thoughts are directed toward God ; the memory 
lingers on his loving-kindness, the imaginations are 
upward toward heaven, and the growing wish of 
the soul is for that vision of beauty when we shall 
see Jesus as he is, and be like him. Every man 
that hath this hope in himself, purifieth himself, 
even as he is pure. 

And while the blessed are seen by the eye of 
God, they are not afraid to look upon him. They 
see him in the pure heart where God is more than 
mirrored — he is imaged there. Let science photo- 
graph the sun ; this is not the greatest wonder. 
The transcendent miracle is that the soul, prepared 
by the Holy Ghost, may receive the very image of 
God. In the soul there may be godliness — God- 
likeness. No dead picture is it ; it lives, it breathes. 
It is the soul created anew in Christ Jesus. We 
live, we breathe, we see, as never before. We see 
God by the indwelling power of holiness, and we 
shall see yet him, by the pure spirit's sight, in 
heaven. 

Finish, Lord, thy new creation ; 

Pure and spotless may we be; 
Let us see thy great salvation 

Perfectly restored in thee : 
Changed from glory into glory, 

Till in heaven we take our place ; 
Till we cast our crowns before thee, 

Lost in wonder, love, and praise. 



68 THE REBEL PRINCE. 



CHAPTER V. 

Absalom the Fugitive. 

Now conscience wakes the bitter memory, 
Of what he was, what is, and what must be 
Worse. 

Absalom has outgeneraled himself. He has 
struck a deadly blow that may speedily recoil upon 
him, and has raised an uproar too great for him to 
endure. The rumour flies to the court, growing as 
evil tidings ever grow upon their way, and making 
bad even worse, until the report is, " Absalom hath 
slain all the king's sons, and not one of them is 
left." David is overwhelmed. 

Soon the truth follows, and yet it is hard to al- 
lay the king's fears, and convince him that his 
other sons are yet alive. Does he suspect that 
Absalom was capable of so extended a slaughter ? 
Jonadab, the cousin of Amnon, and partaker in his 
sin, is subtil enough to curry favour with the king 
by endeavouring to soothe his mind. "Let not 
my lord the king take the thing to his heart, to 
think that all the king's sons are dead; for only 
Amnon is dead." David can scarcely credit this 



ABSALOM THE FUGITIVE. 69 

informer, who has a personal motive in being offi- 
cious, and who must labour to make himself be- 
lieved, by telling the same thing over and over. 
The watchman sees a crowd of people panic-stricken 
and bewildered, hasting down the hill, and Jonadab 
exclaims, "Behold, the king's sons come! As thy 
servant said so it is." They reach the place where 
they and the king and the people weep together in 
great excitement, confusion, and grief. 

David, so overcome by his feelings, and by the 
bewilderment of the people, quite overlooks the 
baseness of Jonadab, when he declares that Absa- 
lom had determined this slaughter from the very 
hour that he felt his honour touched. This offici- 
ous hanger-on about the court betrays himself. 
He has known the plot — has kept it from Amnon 
whom he once helped into sin — has not informed 
the king, and has not interfered with Absalom in 
the work of private revenge. It is well if this low 
mean actor in the tragedy has not been as guilty 
of Amnon' s death as he was of his treacherous sin. 
He might have prevented both, but now may be 
suspected as an accomplice, by his own words. 
David was peculiarly sensitive to everything like 
baseness, and we almost wonder that he does not 
serve this news-bearer as he did the Amalekite who 
brought him the crown and bracelet of Saul with 
the lying boast that he had slain him, exclaiming, 
" Thy blood be upon thy head ; for thy mouth hath 
testified against thee." 



70 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

If David, in his astonishment and grief, over- 
looks such baseness, we are not surprised that no 
order is given for Absalom's arrest. The exag- 
gerated rumour which led him to expect that all 
his sons were slain has prepared him for deriving 
some comfort from the real state of the case. The 
affair is not so terrible as first reported. "Only 
Amnon is dead." Absalom does not appear so 
guilty as first supposed. 

And what now of Absalom ? From the moment 
that his victim gave the last gasp, the lawless 
avenger feared the revenge of the princes and the 
people. " He was as much afraid of them, as they 
were of him. They fled from his malice, he from 
their justice." Xot his sin caused him to flee, but 
the fear of punishment. He had long thought of 
the sin; had grown familiar with it ; had craftily 
planned it, and he was not afraid of it. But he 
had not before weighed the penalty, nor realized 
a murderer's fate. 

Often is it thus with those who violate any law 
of the land, or of God. They go into sin fear- 
lessly, or blindly, or passionately. They do not 
abhor the sin. They do not hate it because it is 
forbidden of God. They do not respect the law 
because they love righteousness. They delight in 
the sin, but after it is committed they begin to fear 
the punishment. The terrors of the law take hold 
upon them. They are sorry, not for the evil deed, 
but for the consequences. They flee from the 



ABSALOM THE FUGITIVE. 71 

scene of their crime, from the reach of human law, 
and often from the society where they are exposed. 
By their flight they condemn themselves. 

We may imagine Absalom, lingering a moment 
on the borders of his estate, and asking himself, 
whither shall I flee? Where find protection? 
Home cannot give it. The camp of Joab cannot 
afford it. No safe hiding-place can be found among 
the mountains, for the avenger of blood may track 
him along the most secret paths. No cottage will 
shelter him, for the brand of Cain is burning on 
his brow. Ah, he may hide, but he cannot hide 
his sin, nor ward off the stroke of justice. 

In this strait many a sinner finds himself. His 
crimes may not be so heinous in human eyes as 
Absalom's; his hands may not be dripping with 
blood, that cries from the ground' for judgment, 
but his heart is stained, his conscience defiled, his 
life is forfeited before God. Whither shall he flee? 
Does he haste from the scene of his guilt ? Memory 
drags it after him. From society? Conscience 
strikes at every step, and lashes him wherever he 
may rest. From God? It is impossible. The 
mountains falling upon him could not hide him 
from the kindled wrath of Jehovah. And the sin- 
ner often flees, like Absalom, as a fugitive from 
justice, but not as a refugee for mercy and liberty. 
Fear governs the fugitive ; hope, the refugee. 

Might not Absalom flee to a city of refuge? 
Hebron, the city of his birth, lay behind him. Not 



72 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

far distant was Shecheni, and before entering it he 
might drink of Jacob's well. Toward the king- 
dom of his grandfather was Ramoth-Gilead. Why 
not flee to a refuge-city ? 

He must have known that there were such cities, 
with good roads thither, and their gates open to 
receive the man-slayer. He must have known the 
provisions of the law for all who came, panting 
and weary, and in fear, seeking their protection, 
unless he had lived as careless and regardless, as 
many a sinner now lives in wilful ignorance of the 
means and way of grace. God is a refuge, but 
many do not know the entrance to his high tower. 
Christ is a hiding-place, but they have not sought 
the door to his fold. 

But Absalom knew that he had no right to an 
asylum in a city of refuge. The law secured pro- 
tection only to one who had killed a person una- 
wares, ignorantly, without enmity, or design. "But 
if he thrust him of hatred, or hurl at him by lying 
of wait, or in enmity smite him with his hand, that 
he die, he that smote him shall surely be put to 
death." Absalom's case, then, was desperate. 
The gates of a refuge city would prove the jaws of 
death, for he could claim no safety by right of law. 
And has any sinner a right to a refuge in God ? 
Can he find salvation by right of law? Nay: the 
law condemns him to eternal death. And yet he 
may haste boldly into God's refuge, saying, " I 
flee unto thee to hide me." The law cannot save 



ABSALOM THE FUGITIVE. 73 

us, but Jesus is able to save even to the uttermost. 
The law condemns, but God, for Christ's sake, will 
forgive, and extend over us the broad shield of his 
merciful protection. 

Nor had Absalom any plea to urge for mercy. 
There was no extenuation, of his crime. He could 
present nothing that would lessen the degree of his 
guilt, or lighten the deserved punishment. And 
can the sinner draw from his conduct, his inten- 
tions, or his circumstances, any plea that will avail 
before God? Can any argument drawn from his 
own life justify him ? Is he not condemned by all 
things around and above him, and self-condemned 
by memory, by the conscience and by his own life? 
But yet the guiltiest sinner may flee to God's re- 
fuge. The more broken he is by confession, and 
the less he justifies or excuses himself, the more 
readily is he welcomed and provided with a full 
salvation. Yes, he may come boldly, saying, 

Just as I am, without one plea, 
But that thy blood was shed for me, 
And that thou bidst me come to thee, 
Lamb of God I come. 

Nor could Absalom find any advocate in a refuge- 
city, who would plead his cause with success. 
Should he flee thither, he must undergo a solemn 
trial, and make it appear that the homicide was 
not intentional, before he could find protection. 
None would there point to an atonement for his 
sins. None would appear as a substitute to die in 



74 THE REBEL PRI> 

rad. By no sacrifice could he be saved from 
the penalties of the law. And here. too. the re- 
fuge-cities come far short of a perfect type of 
Christ. He offers far more than they could afford. 
Jesus is the sinner's Advocate, and he may say 
••Whither shall I flee? Unto thee. Christ, my 
only refuge. Many are my sins, hut more abun- 
dant is thy atonement. I deserve to die. but thou, 
my Substitute, hast died for me. I hear thy voice 
in sweetest song: it commands me to hide in the 
clefts of the rock. Thou art that rock; its clefts 
are thy wounds, and there will I hide me from all 
the accusations of the world." 

And if Absalom were within the gates of a re- 
fuge-city the avenger of blood might enter and de- 
mand him to be given up. and drag him thence to 
justice, or slay him without the walls. His sins 
were too great for it to shelter. Here also, the 
parallel, between the refuge-city and Christ, 
wholly fails. "None however guilty has been cast 
forth from the refuge which the cross of Christ 
affords." Nor will any ever be. for Jesus, who 
calls sinners to repentance, declares, " Him that 
cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.' J The 
heavier he feels the burden of Jhis sins, the closer 
he may cling to the cross, where none ever perished. 
We have then a refuge, ''in which the enemy, the 
accuser, has no power to enter, and whence his 
hand has no power to rend us. Christ is that re- 
fuse, and hpyond all men upon whom the sun 



ABSALOM THE FUGITIVE. 75 

shines, are they happy who have taken sanctuary 
in him. Nothing from without can harm, nothing 
affright them more. They rest secure in him : and 
enfolded in his encircling arms, the storms which 
trouble the life of man, and sprinkle gray hairs 
here and there upon him, often before he knows it, 
affect him not in his quiet rest ; or are heard only 
as the muttering thunders of the distant horizon, 
which only enhance his sense of safety, and do not 
trouble his repose. The house of his hope is not 
shaken, for it is founded on a rock." (Kitto.) 

Absalom turned away from the city of refuge — 
that type of a sinner's hiding-place and safety in 
Christ Jesus. He fled to Geshur, whence his mother 
had come, and where his grandfather was more 
likely to praise than blame him for the deed that 
had brought upon him the fear of punishment. He 
was out of the kingdom, and beyond the reach of 
human law. But he could not — nor can any sin- 
ner — get beyond the territory where God reigns, 
nor throw himself out of the reach of the Divine 
law. He was not yet safe from a more dreadful 
justice than that of men. Geshur could afford no 
refuge for his soul. No human avenger might 
reach him, but still God was saying, " Vengeance 
is mine, I will repay." 

One thing he might have done. It is what every 
•guilty soul ought to do. He might have sought 
refuge in God. Though he seem angry, yet when 
the sinner, contrite for sin, and praying for par- 



76 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

don, boldly faces the deserved punishment, saying, 
"I can but perish if I go," he finds that anger 
turned away. Even though frowns veil his face, 
yet when the penitent one, in the boldness of his 
necessity for forgiveness, presses through the veil, 
he is met with the smiles and the light of a Father's 
countenance. 

It was once asked of an eastern caliph, " If 
there were a great bow, vast in its curve as the 
arching sky, and the cord thereof reaching from 
the east to the west, and if God were the archer, 
and calamities the arrows, and men the objects at 
which they were shot, then to whom should the 
sons of men fly for protection?" The answer was, 
"The sons of men must fly unto the Lord." We 
cannot fly from the arrows of his justice, but when 
we turn to meet them, we shall find them withheld, 
and put back into the quiver, for Jesus has secured 
unto all his people the removal of the terrors of 
the law. 

We are honouring Jehovah, and exalting his 
pardoning mercy, when we declare that even Absa- 
lom might have found forgiveness with God. He 
who forgave David when he confessed, "Against 
thee, thee only have I sinned," would have par- 
doned David's guiltier son, had he bowed in peni- 
tence and in faith. The chief of sinners may find 
forgiveness. This assurance, everywhere held out 
to us in God's word, has led many to seek Christ 
as the Permanent Refuge, whom they have found 



ABSALOM THE FUGITIVE. 77 

in the time of their trouble; He has hid them in 
his pavilion, in the secret of his tabernacle has he 
hid them till their calamities were over-past; and 
they have experienced the great truth — that the 
door of mercy is closed in no man's face, that God's 
heart is shut against no man's misery, that God's 
hand is shut against no man's need, that God's eye 
is shut against no man's danger, that God's ear is 
shut against no man's prayer. 
7 * 






78 THE REBEL PRINCE. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Absalom in. JExtte. 

But doth the exile's heart securely there 
In sunshine dwell ? Ah ! when was exile blest ? 
"When did bright scenes, clear heavens, or summer air 
Chase from his soul the fever of unrest ? 

" Time and thinking tame the strongest grief." 
This old proverb has in it far more of the worldly 
than the Christian spirit. It gives no intimation 
of consolation in God. Thinking could do little 
for King David, when every thought of the tragedy 
in his family opened afresh the wounds of his heart. 
Time, at length, would give him something else to 
think of, and thus very many now are partially 
consoled. . Poor comfort, but the best they have ! 
It is intimated that time had much to do in wearing 
away the grief over the death of Amnon. It might 
in some measure heal the sorrows of David's heart. 
But it could never silence the awful memories, nor 
scare away the tragic dreams that would associate 
themselves with the names of Amnon, Tamar, and 
Absalom. He knew well of a far better source of 
comfort. He knew that submission to the will of 



ABSALOM IN EXILE. 79 

God, though often the last, is always the best 
means of consolation. " Thy will be done," is 
often all that we can say, yet in truly saying it, we 
are blessed with resignation. 

Other anxieties, also, grew up in his mind, 
crowding out the past sorrows. Three years had 
passed since Absalom threw himself out of his fa- 
ther's protection and favour, and became an exile, 
out-lawed and proscribed — three long years in 
which David mourned for his wayward son every 
day. " And the soul of King David longed to go 
forth unto Absalom." 

And why ? First, he had a godly pity for his 
absent son. Very sacred were these deep compas- 
sions. They were more than natural ; they were 
spiritual. How can the royal Psalmist touch his 
harp, or sing a new song, when he has a son in a 
heathen land, probably revelling and rioting at a 
foreign court ? Who wonders if he cannot feast, 
and if tears are as his drink day and night ? Who 
can charm away his grief, if he break forth into 
sighing, " Absalom, my son, my son ; how can I 
give thee up, Absalom ?" 

In every tender and generous heart, where the 
feelings are purified in sorrow, we may find very 
much that resembles the compassion of God. Es- 
pecially is this found in the heart of David, the 
theocratic representative of Jehovah. The Lord 
delights to represent himself as a father, pitying 
his children, and longing to go forth to them, even 



80 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

"when they are disobedient and rebellious. Here, 
then, in the depth of David's heart, we have some 
illustrations of the deep compassions of the Father 
above, still yearning for his wayward, wandering 
children, who are exiles from the Father's house, 
self-banished from the court of Heaven, and prodi- 
gals in a far country, wasting their substance and 
involving themselves in eternal ruin. How does 
he represent himself as grieved every day for those 
who have fled from his kingdom, and are estranged 
from his love ! "I have nourished and brought up 
children, and they have rebelled against me. They 
have forsaken the Lord, they are gone away back- 
ward. Why should ye be stricken any more ? 
Why revolt more and more ? Is Ephraim my dear 
son ? Is he a pleasant child ? for since I spake 
against him I do earnestly remember him still : 
therefore my bowels are troubled for him : I will 
surely have mercy upon him." 

Again : David's horror of Absalom's crime wore 
somewhat away. His sense of the outrage became 
less and less keen. The pendulum of his wrath 
that may have swung heavily against his favourite 
son, was slowly falling back the other way. All 
have noticed that if a criminal can lie in prison, 
'and have his trial long delayed, the abhorrence of 
his crime lessens, and the indignation against him 
cools in the public mind. They who, at first, were 
almost ready to drag him from his cell, and lynch 
him, are now almost willing to open the doors and 



ABSALOM IN EXILE. 81 

let him run at large ; or if he be convicted and 
sentenced, they are quite willing to petition for 
his pardon. A proof, that if justice depended upon 
the mere feelings of men, it would not be duly 
administered. There would be too much haste and 
severity at the first, or at the last too great leni- 
ency and undeserved pity. 

And here men often mistake in arguing from the 
human to the Divine. Because our sense of jus- 
tice is influenced by our feelings, men imagine that 
God's compassion will, at length, prevail over his 
.justice. They suppose that his hatred of sin will 
some time cool into the mildest complacency, and 
that he will finally lose all intention to punish the 
guilty in his pity for their souls. They seem to 
think that while his heart longs to go forth to them 
in their sinful exile, he will never execute the de- 
mands of his righteous and eternal government. 
They forget that time does not wear away the im- 
mutable justice of God, nor does mercy reduce it 
to an unmeaning attribute. They forget that his 
justice is not a merely human feeling, but a divine 
principle, growing ever stronger the more it is pro- 
voked. Never forget, that this compassionate Fa- 
ther is also a righteous Judge. And one reason 
why he pities, is, that the sinner is already ex- 
posed to the justice of his law. And the greatest 
manifestation of his love is seen in his sending his 
Son to deliver us from the law, which may be satis- 
fied, but never repealed. 



82 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

Also : David had been in exile, and knew its 
bitter experience. He remembered its trials, and 
therefore could feel deeply for his self-banished son. 
He had been driven by the revenge of Saul from 
the court, from the army, and across the borders 
of the kingdom. He had been a homeless wan- 
derer, with scarcely an attendant ; in hourly dread 
of death, fain to beg a morsel of bread wherever he 
dare show his face, and often on the very brink of 
despair. No wonder he mourned every day for 
Absalom, because the court where his son was 
might be even worse than the wilds of the desert. 
In the wilderness of En-gedi, or in the land of Moab, 
David was not estranged from God, for he could 
say, " Because Thou hast been my help, therefore 
in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice." .But 
who would lead Absalom to say, " Thou art my re- 
fuge and my portion in the land of the living" ? 

And if David thus drew upon his experience for 
a large pity toward his exiled son, may we not 
think that the Son of God even now draws upon 
his past experience of our exile from the Father's 
house, and thus more fully realizes our condition ? 
On this earth of ours he walked a homeless pro- 
phet, hungry and weary, hated of men and driven 
from their cities, hunted by persecutors and bent 
under human adversities, familiar with loneliness, 
and in the agonies of death exclaiming that he was, 
for a little, forsaken of God ; and may not he re- 
member all that he once shared of our exile, when 



ABSALOM IN EXILE. 83 

in heaven he is touched with the feeling of our in- 
firmities, and is interceding for our restoration to 
the Father ? And how must he now look with 
compassion upon all who are like those on whom 
his eye of tender pity- fell when he once met them 
wandering still farther from God, or saw them flee- 
ing away from him while he sought the lost ! They, 
of their own will, have gone astray like lost sheep, 
and are still straying farther in the wilderness. 
Not yet has he proclaimed a law forbidding their 
return. They have banished themselves, by their 
own sins, and can you wonder that Jesus pities, or 
that the soul of the Father longs to go forth unto 
them ? 

Further: David must have had painful anxieties 
for Absalom, because he knew, by experience, the 
temptations of exile. His cherished son would be 
tempted to commit greater crimes, become more 
desperate, and bring upon himself accumulated 
woes. 

David in his times of banishment, it must be con- 
fessed, had not strongly resisted and overcome 
temptation. He strangely and sinfully yielded. 
He was but human, when God permitted him to 
try his own strength. His was our weak nature, 
and what would we have done when thus tempted, 
desolate, dismayed ? Temptations must come pow- 
erfully to any one situated as David was, an out- 
law, suspected everywhere, surprised often, waylaid 
and surrounded by enemies. His safety seemed 



84 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

to depend upon crafty policies, disguises, fraudu- 
lent expedients, and daring strategies. Of all 
these he had to repent, weeping bitterly. He was 
permitted to go just where thousands are perpetu- 
ally going, to reveal to us the power of temptations, 
and to show unto all who come after, the only way 
of deliverance. He left us, printed in rock, the 
footsteps made when he returned again to his God 
with an overcoming faith. 

But what would the faithless, lawless, Absalom 
do when tempted ? Would he not make himself 
worse and worse in his exile ? That was the pang 
daily entering his father's heart. His soul longed 
to go forth unto Absalom, that if it could not win 
him back, it might at least wreathe about his spirit 
the purifying remembrances of home; if it could 
not reform, it might restrain and curb him in his 
sadly directed career. He knew that the riotous 
prodigal would have full sweep in wickedness at 
Geshur's court. 

Is not this the anxious fear of hundreds of pa- 
rents who have sons away from home ? Even the 
best places of study or employment have their 
temptations. Evil companions will surround them, 
like harpies, greedy to devour. Amusement and 
fashion may help to pave the way to ruin. And 
if they went out with the depraved heart of the 
prodigal, or of Absalom, there is no human power 
to hold them back from self-destruction. Nothing 
but the grace of God can save them. 



ABSALOM IN EXILE. 85 

Among all the parental anxieties there are none 
more intensely painful than those for a son -who is 
running such a wreck. It is one of the things 
worse than death. Over the dead one may cease 
to mourn, as David ceased to mourn for Arunon, 
"seeing he was dead." But for the living there 
are daily compassions, ceaseless tears, and prayers. 
They have not yet finished their evil course. Some- 
thing worse or better must be the result. And yet 
in the holiest parental heart, there is but a feeble 
intimation of what is in the heart of Jesus. He 
saw, when on earth, all our temptations in our exile 
from the throne and kingdom of the Father. And 
he now looks down with his all-pitying eye to see 
whether we resist them as he did in the wilderness, 
or yield to them as his people have sometimes 
done ; and doth not his soul long*to go forth unto 
us ? 

Partaker of the human name, 
He knows the frailty of our frame. 

Again : David must have had anxieties for the 
soul — the spiritual condition of Absalom. The 
exile was far from God. Even if his conscience 
were sometimes troubled by the mercies despised, 
or by his sins unacknowledged, yet he had. no hope 
in God, to lift his spirit above the trials and temp- 
tations of banishment. 

David knew, by experience, what it was to trust 
in the Lord, when in exile. The hunted wanderer 
was the object of Heaven's deepest interest and 
8 



86 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

affection. Often did he have a thorny pillow, an 
anxious mind, and a trembling heart. He wan- 
dered in the wilderness in a solitary way : he found 
no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, his soul 
fainted in him. Then he cried unto the Lord in 
his trouble, and he delivered him out of his dis- 
tresses. " God loves, as David knew," says old 
Christopher Ness, " to reserve his holy hand for a 
dead lift in behalf of his servants in covenant with 
him, when there is a damp upon their hopes, and a 
death upon their helps." 

Thus if fear or folly drove David into exile, its 
experiences brought him nearer to God, and he be- 
came dearer to his heavenly Father. But was it 
thus with Absalom ? There is not a gleam of evi- 
dence that he sought God in his estrangement. 
Without God, and without hope, he was heaping 
up judgments upon his soul. David must have 
felt only too sure of this, and can you wonder that 
his soul was consuming in its ardour to go forth 
unto him ? The worse the son, the more anxiety 
for him. 

There are thousands of fathers and mothers who 
understand this. Absent and wandering children 
are painfully remembered because they remain 
strangers to God — aliens from the commonwealth 
of Israel. It is not their bodily comfort that 
causes the deepest solicitude, for they may not be 
exposed to it. It is the soul's salvation for which 
they yearn. "If he were only a Christian," said 



ABSALOM IN EXILE. 87 

a mother whose son was far distant in a land where 
every tongue was strange, and where every man 
that he met might prove a robber, " I could be 
comforted. 

And it is the soul of the exiled sinner on which 
God fixes his anxieties. It was toward prodigals 
that Jesus directed his pity ; over the Absaloms 
he mourned ; over guilty Jerusalem he wept, and 
the burden of it all was, " They believe not on me." 

David mourned and longed, pitied and, doubt- 
less, prayed, but it seems that he did nothing more. 
He sent no message to Absalom. For three long 
years there was no entreaty, no invitation, no as- 
surance that if he would return, penitent and obe- 
dient, he should be pardoned, and accepted again 
at home. Justice ruled the king. It was but just 
that his guilty son should remain .forever banished. 
In all the mercies of the royal heart, there was no- 
thing that could provide an atonement for Absa- 
lom's crime. The law demanded his death, and 
could the king invite his own son home to meet the 
retribution he deserved ? Rather does he leave 
him to himself, still the object of a compassion pow- 
erless to save. 

But not thus with our God. In his yearning 
love, he sends to us exiles, his words of entreaty, 
his messengers with kind invitations, and his Holy 
Spirit with his regenerating power. True it would 
have been just to leave us without a message or a 
call to return. But banished and lost as we are 



88 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

he sends even his only Son to seek and save. And 
in the riches of his compassion he provides an 
atonement. The Father is not inviting us to meet 
death at his throne, but to come to the cross and 
learn that Jesus died to secure us pardon and 
eternal life. 

David's silence, however, was surely not from 
an unwillingness or an inability to forgive and re- 
store the exiled son. There was an atonement for 
him, greater than any that the king could have 
devised. It was in the sacrifices offered upon the 
altars of the tabernacle — the holy types of the one 
great sacrifice to be offered in due time on Calvary. 
God had the dispensing power to forgive all his 
sins, and David as king, could have reprieved the 
sentence of the law. Let him return in penitence, 
vowing at the altars his allegiance to God and the 
king ; let him seek the pardon of the heavenly and 
the earthly father, and he might be welcomed with 
joy in Jerusalem, and with hallelujahs in heaven. 

Did not Absalom know this ? Yet he shut out 
the recollections, the motives, and the mercies, that 
would have led him to repentance. He was too 
haughty to accept of peace and reconciliation on 
such terms. He was utterly averse to confession 
and prayer, humiliation and amendment, pledges 
and vows to God. The great hatred of his heart 
was against God and holiness. No gospel would 
he accept, no sacrifice would he acknowledge, no 
atonement would he receive, no reformation of life, 



ABSALOM IN EXILE. 89 

nor change of heart would he seek. He wished no 
restoration that must begin with God, and if in his 
exile there were tears, it was not the weeping of 
penitence. If there were sorrows, they were not 
godly sorrows that work repentance. 

Absalom might have found forgiveness through 
the sacrifices on the altar ; we may find it through 
Christ on Calvary. If we had nothing to. preach 
to men but God's compassions, it must be a hope- 
less message to the hearers ; but we preach Christ 
crucified — a sacrifice for sins — a Saviour for sin- 
ners. The Father not only longs for the lost, but 
provides every needed means for their recovery, 
and now waits for their return. Rise, and go to 
thy Father ! 

He is saying, " Return, ye backsliding children, 
and I will heal your backslidings:" Shall not we 
respond, " Behold, we come unto thee, for thou art 
the Lord our God?" 



90 THE REBEL PRINCE. 



CHAPTER VII. 

The Hand of Joab, 

Young men soon give, and soon forget affronts ; 
Old age is slow in both. 

David in his shepherd-days may have climbed 
the mountains that rose near Bethlehem, and looked 
off upon the town that lay upon the slopes of Mount 
Moriah, and wondered at the strength of the for- 
tress that crowned it. Perhaps he knew the tra- 
dition that to that very mountain Abraham had 
once led his son Isaac for the intended sacrifice. 
But he did not foresee that he would one day make 
of that town Jerusalem the joy of the earth, where 
the tribes would assemble, whence prophets should 
go forth, and out of whose gate the Messiah would 
be led to be crucified on Calvary. 

When David became the acknowledged king of 
all Israel, one of his greatest enterprises was to 
capture Jerusalem from the Jebusites, who then 
held it in defiance of his power. He besieged it, and 
the voice of derision rang from the citadel, in con- 
tempt of the forces that were pitched near the 



THE HAND OF JOAB. 91 

walls. In order to fire the ardour of his brave 
soldiers, he promised that the man who should first 
break through the walls,, should have the post of 
chief-captain in the army. 

There was one man, ambitious, bold, crafty, 
rude, and sometimes reckless, to whom this was no 
idle offer. He attempted the perilous feat, sur- 
prising the garrison, and taking the strong-hold, 
probably, in something of the style of Ethan Al- 
len at Ticonderoga, who, when asked, " By whose 
authority do you come ?" replied with an oath and 
a flourish of his sword, " In the name of the Great 
Jehovah, and the continental congress !" This man 
was Joab, a nephew of the king. 

Bravery, in human eyes, often atones for the 
want of high moral principle and upright conduct. 
It was well known that Joab had *been impetuous, 
unscrupulous, and revengeful. Already had he 
proved lawless in the murder of Abner, and a dan- 
gerous man in the use of military power. The 
king found it hard to curb him, and was obliged to 
say of him, especially among his sister's sons, " I 
am this day weak, though anointed king; and 
these men, the sons of Zeruiah, be too hard for me : 
the Lord shall reward the doer of evil according to 
his wickedness." By careful policy, Joab had 
held a high position, and now his daring exploit 
won for him a higher promotion. David gave him 
the chief command, and entrusted to him some of 
the weightiest affairs of the administration. 



92 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

Still the rough, bold-tempered chief was closely 
watched. He knew it. Not always very ceremo- 
nious, and never a cringing servant willing to loose 
his master's shoe-latchet for a favour, yet he was 
careful to let his life run smoothly with that of his 
king. Independent, intrepid, and full of military 
pride, he added greatly to the security and glory 
of the kingdom. In character he was a Marlbo- 
rough, without his public and ruinous mistakes ; 
in generalship a Wellington, without his solid vir- 
tues. In all the policies of the War-office, David 
soon learned how to detect the hand of Joab. 

The hand of Joab, moved by the heart of his 
king, had much to do in an event that brought se- 
vere judgments upon the house of David. It was 
to this iron nerved commander that the order was 
given, M Set Uriah in the fore-front of the hottest bat- 
tle." The plot succeeded. Uriah was slain. Two of 
the blackest crimes of the decalogue now provoked 
Jehovah's anger, and hence calamitous judgments 
were preparing for David. " Now, therefore, the 
sword shall never depart from thine house," and 
when those blackest crimes re-appeared intensified 
in his own family he began to realize the terrible 
predictions of the faithful prophet. 

And now the hand of Joab appears again. The 
wily general can see that something is the matter 
with his king. Perhaps David had lately seemed 
often abstracted, forgetful, neglectful: gave strange 
orders in the military department : hardly knew 



THE HANI) OF JOAB. 93 

what he was doing in the civil administration ; 
planned no great enterprises for three years ; failed 
to do certain things, and did some things twice ; ap- 
peared singular at the court ; was nervous at the 
council, and was evidently breaking down under 
some great sorrow. Joab detected what was a 
great part of the trouble — " The king's heart was 
toward Absalom." He, probably, saw too that 
the hearts of the people were strongly turned in 
the same direction, for the public indignation had 
softened into pity ; and what the king longed for, 
and the people wished, was quite sure to be ef- 
fected before very long. Therefore, thinking it 
well to have the credit of bringing about a popular 
result, he took the matter resolutely in hand. 

A practical subject may here be illustrated, viz ; 
Peace attempted upon wrong terms and by false me- 
thods. Notice, fflrst, the wrong kind of peace 
sought for the exiled Absalom. Joab devises it. 
He does not consult the law, to know what its de- 
mands are ; nor the judges, to get their terms for 
the restoration of a criminal ; nor the government, 
to find its pardoning power ; nor the king, to learn 
what conditions he may offer. The question is not, 
" How can Absalom's sin be atoned and pardoned, 
and he be first reformed, and then restored;" but 
rather, " How can a peace — any sort of a peace — 
be brought about?" And thus he attempts the 
slight healing of a deep wound, not on principles 
of right, but by a temporizing policy. He will 



94 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

■whisper peace, peace, and deceive the king into 
measures which ignore or annul the righteous laws 
of his kingdom. He stands in the lead of those 
who would contrive to effect a temporary peace be- 
tween the sinner and his God. In no little theo- 
I gy one may detect the hand of Joab. 

suppose that Joab would have made 
a petition to the king, interceded for Absalom's 
a, and prepared the way for his return. 
Then, knowing the lai ■_ : David's compas- 

sions, would have gone to the exile, taught him re- 
pentance, tried to move his heart and melt hi- - ml 
by the remembrances of his father's tenderness 
and great mercy. We look for him to haste :: 
Geshur, and there plead with the wanderer, en- 
treating him. by all the meekness, gentleness and 
sure mercies of David, to pray God that hi 
might be forgiven in heaven, and thus be als 
given on earth ; and even with tears imploring him 
further aggravate the wounds of his father's 
heart, nor bring him down in sorrow to a prema- 
ture grave. We look for the hand of Joab, lead- 
ing the exile back, penitent, and almost overcome 
by the prospect of such reconciliation and peace, 
and then at the throne we expect to hear Joab in- 
terceding in behalf of the guilty prince. But no! 
that hand is craftily forming another scheme, and 
schief that will cause the throne to 
shake, and all Israel to feel the shock. 

What a mediator he might have been ! — a type 



THE HAND OF JOAB. 95 

of our Lord, who undertook the work of reconcil- 
ing us to the God whose laws we had violated; to 
the Father whose compassions we abused, and to 
the King from whose spiritual kingdom we had 
fled, seeking shelter in a world of exile and of 
earthly woe. For our Mediator first obtained 
from the Father his terms of peace. He consulted 
the demands of the law upon us, and proposed to 
satisfy them. Then he came to us, entreated us 
by all the love of God, and besought us with tears 
and sufferings to return to the Father's house. 
He gave himself unto death to make clear the way 
for our reconciliation, and having ascended from 
the grave, he ever liveth to make intercession for 
us. 

Secondly. Notice the ingenious method of secur- 
ing a false peace. If anything- could touch the 
king's heart, it was poetry and parable, whose 
glowing words would warm his imagination, and 
kindle the noblest impulses of his soul. Nathan 
knew this when he wished to bring his king to re- 
pentance. Argument might fail, but the parable 
of the poor man, from whom was rudely torn the 
one little lamb that was to him as a daughter, 
would surely prove effective. And so it did. Joab, 
doubtless, knew that his king could thus be moved ; 
and he knew, too, that a bad cause and a false ar- 
gument may be made to appear well by a decep- 
tive illustration. Error is often made to look like 
truth by dressing it in striking imagery. Deceit- 



96 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

ful illustrations are ever dangerous, blurring the 
intellect, and rousing the sympathies. Of them- 
selves, they never prove anything, but they may 
blind you to the falsity of an evil doctrine, and the 
weakness of a bad argument. Here then is Joab's 
strategy. He cannot gain his bad cause by cool 
argument, but he may succeed by a delusive 
parable. 

On a day when the king is in one of his better 
moods a woman of Tekoah appears, as a widow, 
disconsolate, and troubled for a son who, in his un- 
fortunate rashness, slew his brother in the field. 
And now the whole circle of her friends has risen 
to avenge the blood of the slain. She asks that 
her son may be protected, so that the family name 
may not be extinguished, like the quenching of the 
last coal* upon a widow's hearth. 

David listens, but is not yet touched. He does 
not yet see the point, nor make the application to 
himself. Is he wary of parables now, since the 
arrow of conviction was shot into his heart by the 
prophet Nathan ? It seems but a plain matter of 
fact ; he will see the proper authorities, and have 
justice done to her son. Not a hair of his head 
shall fall to the earth. 

Now follows the imagery that captures the mind 

* That was certainly a very strong figure, well adapted to turn 
David'? mind to the law which might secure the protection of her 
pretended son. Plato called those who escaped Deucalion's flood, 
" The few live coals of the human race." 



THE HAND OF JOAB. y« 

of the king. "And the woman said, Wherefore 
then hast thou thought such a thing against the 
people of God? [as that they demand the life of 
thy son:] for the king doth speak this thing as one 
which is faulty, in that the king doth not fetch 
home again his banished. For we must needs die, 
and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot 
be gathered up again; neither doth God respect 
any person; yet doth he devise means that his 
banished be not expelled from him." 

"Is not the hand of Joab in all this?" exclaims 
David, carried away by sympathy, by an imagina- 
tion, by a deception. And yet having committed 
himself, he cannot retract ; not if Absalom may 
have the benefit of the delusion. He orders Joab 
to bring him home. 

The fallacy in her story is, that the king was 
under obligation to "fetch home his banished," 
without requiring any satisfaction to a just law : 
and that God will bring home his banished without 
any terms of reconciliation. It is true, however, 
that " God doth devise means that his banished be 
not expelled from him." He has given his word, 
his Son, his Spirit, his church and all its ordinan- 
ces, so that we may have abundant means and mo- 
tives to return and be at peace with him. 

Thirdly, Notice the delusiveness of a wrong me- 
thod of peace. Absalom is brought back to Jeru- 
salem, expecting probably that his father will has- 
ten to meet him, fall on his neck, weep, welcome, 
9 



98 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

and forgive. But no ! he finds nothing of the sort. 
There is no way of justification provided for him, 
no access to his father's presence, no liberty, no 
reconciliation, no pardon, no peace at all. The 
king has said, " Let him turn to his own house, and 
let him not. see my face." This favour of home 
and family is more than most rulers would have 
allowed to a guilty subject, or even to a criminal 
son. 

" That he was not admitted into the king's pre- 
sence," remarks Dr. Kitto, "was a sign well un- 
derstood, far more significantly in the East than it 
would be even with us, that he was still under dis- 
grace. It in fact compelled him to live as a pri- 
vate person, and to lead a retired life ; for it would 
have been outrageously scandalous for him to have 
appeared in public, or to have assumed any state, 
until he appeared at court. The courtiers were 
also constrained to avoid him." 

He is a guilty man, still impenitent, and must 
not be deluded with the false notion that forgive- 
ness is so cheap, that it is a mere gratuity to be 
tossed to every criminal and every rebel without 
regard to any satisfaction to the law, or any alle- 
giance to the government. He must know that he 
still deserves the full penalties of justice. Pardon 
is justly withheld, and access denied ; his house is 
deservedly made a sort of prison, beyond whose 
walls he must not go. Banishment was hard, but 
imprisonment is harder to endure. 



THE HAND OF JOAB. 99 

And more : he is a dangerous man. One who 
could slay a brother in cold blood must be danger- 
ous. One who could murder the heir-apparent to 
the throne to clear the way for himself must be 
dangerous. One who could already show signs of 
plotting to overthrow the government, must be a 
man of treacherous intentions, worthy of " durance 
vile." It is not safe for him to run at large and 
undermine the national liberties. And what re- 
spect or obedience can be paid to David's adminis- 
tration if he give so guilty and dangerous a man 
his freedom unrestrained ? Absalom has forfeited 
his right to liberty, and therefore is not wronged 
by the judicious confinement. 

And did you never think that if such a peace 
were extended to impenitent sinners, and they 
were received into heaven, they would be danger- 
ous courtiers about the throne of God? They 
never repented of their sins ; they may commit 
them still. They never were changed in heart ; 
they may prove as debased and corrupting as ever 
before. They never disavowed their rebellion 
against God's holy government ; they may show 
themselves again rebellious. They never vowed 
their allegiance to heaven's King ; they may plot 
conspiracy and raise revolt against his authority. 
Satan did it once, and they may follow his exam- 
ple. They would endanger the happy obedience 
of saints and angels, for how could the holiest be- 
ings in heaven fully reverence and serve their King 



100 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

if he tolerated among them the impenitent, the un- 
pardoned, the unregenerate ? Nay, this can never 
be, for the fearful, and the abominable, and whoso- 
ever loveth and maketh a lie, must be excluded 
from the kingdom of God. He, in justice, will 
turn every such sinner to his own place, never to 
see his face in peace. 

"So Absalom dwelt two full years in Jerusalem, 
and saw not the king's face." You ask, Even if this 
were just, was it not an unwise policy ? What 
good could it do ? What evil it might bring about ? 
It would draw to Absalom the sympathies of the 
people. They do not like to see these sudden ar- 
rests by the government, and these imprisonments, 
however dangerous the men are supposed to be. 
They are likely to imagine that such a man is suf- 
fering only from suspicion or jealousy. They may 
make a political martyr of him, and by the magic 
of the name of their most princely Absalom, may 
gather a party in opposition to the administration. 
How they will recall the handsome prince of such 
courtly bearing and winning address ! How his 
absence on state occasions would only cause them 
to think and speak of him the more ! It would be 
deemed very hard, that the now apparent heir to 
the throne,* who could grace any procession, and 
any festivity, should never be seen, save in the 

* Chileab the second son of David was probably dead, and Solo- 
mon, much younger than Absalom, was perhaps not indicated, and 
certainly not publicly known as the successor to the throne. 



THE HAND OF JOAB. 101 

guarded enclosures of his private dwelling. Then 
was not his confinement very impolitic ? 

We answer that it was not mere state policy that 
induced the king to treat his son with such rigour. 
Nor was it his delight in the display of arbitrary 
power. It was principle. It was a necessity im- 
posed by justice as well as by safety. For Absa- 
lom was not only a guilty and a dangerous man, 
but he was a desperate man. He was designing 
and unscrupulous. His record proved it. Per- 
haps in his exile he had given some proof that he 
was there plotting a scheme of rebellion, and Da- 
vid was glad to have him more completely in his 
power. You cannot believe, for one moment, that 
the king, with all his excessive tenderness and fa- 
vouritism toward his son, would have so dealt with 
him, unless he had the best of reasons and justice 
on his side. 

Still you ask, What would be the effect on Absa- 
lom's spirit and temper ? How would he like to 
hear of festivals, and public rejoicings, when all 
but himself were present ? How brook the rumour 
that ambassadors from the surrounding courts were 
being paraded through Jerusalem, and he alone ex- 
cluded from their society ? So fond of exhibiting 
his fine appearance, how endure to be forbidden his 
imposing displays ? 

No doubt his spirit was chafed, and his mind dis- 
mally clouded. No doubt he felt exasperated, and 
thought of revenge. But it was his fault rather 
9 * 



102 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

than his misfortune, and the fault was his own — 
not David's. And the fact that he was exaspe- 
rated, was the best reason why he should be held 
under close restraint. The fact that this lion 
chafes and roars only proves that he still deserves 
the iron band and guarded cage. Let him loose, 
and he will make terrible havoc of life and liberty. 

But you say, Punishment will not reform nor 
tame him into allegiance. Grant it. This is just 
why he needs the punishment. If one does not re- 
form under it, he deserves it all the more. If re- 
leased he would be the same man still. And re- 
member that punishment is not designed mainly 
for the reformation of the criminal, but for the 
sake of justice, law, and government. The ques- 
tion is not, Will he be made better by it ? But, 
Does he deserve it for his crimes ? On this princi- 
ple God punishes men, and delegates to the proper 
authorities the right to punish transgressors of the 
law. Nor does reformation secure the right to be 
set free from the penalties of justice. 

"Three years," writes Matthew Henry, "Absa- 
lom had been in exile with his grandfather, and 
now two years a prisoner at large in his own house, 
and in both better dealt with than he deserved ; 
yet his spirit was still unhumbled, his pride unmor- 
tified, and instead of being thankful that his life is 
spared, he thinks himself sorely wronged that he is 
not restored to all his places at court. Had he 
truly repented of his sin, his distance from the 



THE HAND OF JOAB. 103 

gayeties of the court, and his solitude and confine- 
ment in his own house would have been very agree- 
able to him. If a murderer must live, let him be 
for ever a recluse. But Absalom cannot bear this 
just and gentle mortification ; he longs to see the 
king's face, pretending it was because he loved 
him, but really because he wanted an opportunity 
to supplant him. He cannot do his father mis- 
chief till he is reconciled to him ; this therefore is 
the first branch of his plot ; this snake cannot 
sting again till he be warmed in his father's 
bosom." 

Absalom feels that his is but an unsatisfactory 
peace. He must have access to his father, and 
therefore we have another phase of the subject. 

Fourthly, Notice the unjust and imperious dic- 
tates of a peace attempted upon wrong terms and 
by ingenious methods. He proposes to gain his 
point, " not by pretended submissions and pro- 
mises of reformation, but (would you think of it ?) 
by insults and injuries." He has evidently de- 
manded that he may see his father. He has it in 
mind to dictate his own terms of reconciliation, and 
David knows, too well, the only terms of a righte- 
ous peace with God, to let his son make the condi- 
tions on which he shall be restored. His love for 
the prince has made his severity towards him very 
painful to his heart, and he is entitled to much cre- 
dit for his self-restraint. 

It seems that Joab has, by this time, fully con- 



104 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

sented to the justice of Absalom's treatment. He 
employs no more parables, no further craftiness. 
He ceases to go near the unforgiven prince. Again 
and again does Absalom send for the wily and rug- 
ged general, but in vain. Joab does not come. 

"We are quite amused at the plan adopted to 
bring Joab near him. It could not be more cun- 
ning and effective, proving that adversity sharp- 
ened his wit, if it did not put an edge upon his 
conscience. It is for the servants, on the estate 
of the prince, to set Joab's neighbouring field of 
barley on fire. They do it, and this brings Mm in 
hot haste, and with keen rebuke. Then Absalom 
makes his demands, in his own name, and with the 
assumption of authority. He requests instant 
death, or unconditional pardon from his father. 

" Say to the king, Wherefore am I come from 
Geshur ? It had been good for me to have been 
there still ! Xow therefore, let me see the king's 
face : and if there be any iniquity in me. let him 
kill me." 

What ! does he pretend to doubt whether there 
be any iniquity in him ? And dare to insinuate 
that he is guiltless ? And intimate that he is un- 
justly treated'.' And to demand that his innocence 
recommend him to the royal favour ? There are 
no confessions, no entreaties for pardon ; no pledges 
of loyalty to the king ; nothing but insolence, and 
a fling at his father's severity. Ah ! the unsatis- 
factory peace already granted, has only deluded 



THE HAND OF JOAB. 105 

him into a false notion of his rights, and filled him 
with proud dictation to his sovereign. Strange are 
such demands ; but not more strange than those 
which sinners make, when, deluded by a mere tem- 
porary peace, they come at last to claim admission 
into God's presence and glory, without prayer, 
without confession or pledge, and only with self- 
righteousness, and a pretension to the rewards of 
innocence. Yes, even with a complaint that longer 
punishment for their sin, is unjust and undeserved. 
Thus do men abuse the forbearance and long-suffer- 
ing of God, who withholds a deserved severity, that 
they may have space for repentance. 

The demands are unjust, yet David relents when 
the bold general pleads for Absalom. Perhaps he 
fears the effect of longer keeping the young prince 
under such restrictions, for those who sympathize 
with the public favourite may be excited to con- 
spire against the throne. But more likely, he can- 
not resist the appeal to his tenderness and love. 
His better judgment yields to the promptings of 
his heart. For five years he has not seen his once 
indulged son. For two years he has been almost 
within hearing of his voice, and yet not a word 
has passed. As Joab pleads, the king gives 
way. He is imposed upon by the very boldness 
of his son's request, and blind to the motives that 
prompt it. He suspects not the worst that may 
come ; he hopes for the best. Justice shall be set 
aside. The law against murder shall be for once 



106 THE RE-BEL PRIXCE. 

suspended or overlooked. The criminal need not 
be penitent. The danger of his over-riding all 
government shall be dismissed. The securities for 
obedience shall not be demanded. Absalom shall 
see the king's face. 

Had there been true repentance in the son, as 
he came to his father, the scene of their meeting 
would have its only parallel in the case of the pro- 
digal son, when his father saw him while yet a 
great way off, and ran, and fell on his neck, and 
kissed him, and heard his confession, but would not 
hear his tearful plea to be made one of his hired 
servants, and at once gave him the fullest assur- 
ance that he was perfectly restored to his father's 
house and heart. But there is not a word here 
about weeping at the gate, nor of robe or ring, nor 
of feasting in the halls, nor of rejoicing in the pal- 
ace. Only this — when David " called for Absa- 
lom, he came to the king, and bowed himself on his 
face to the ground before the king; and the king 
kissed Absalom." 

Was it the kiss of peace ? Was it forgiveness ? 
Was it full reconciliation ? It seems rather a mere 
toleration ; a cessation of penalties ; a suspension 
of severities, which David, in his profound sense 
of justice, knew to be deserved. Yet an experi- 
ment might be made of leniency. There is nothing 
of what we find in the formal pardon extended to 
Charles the Bold of Burgundy, after he had of- 
fended his father, and been refused admittance 



THE HAND OF JOAB. 107 

into his presence. The old Duke once "snatched 
up a weapon, and, tottering from his chamber, 
vowed to take vengeance on his son." But per r 
suasive words disarmed his impotent fury, and at 
length by various ingenuities an appeal was made 
for peace. The son was introduced with greater 
outward pomp than inward penitence, by the Jo- 
abs of the court, and he made his defensive con- 
fession. Philip the Good heard it, and then raising 
him up, kissed him, saying, " Charles, my son, I 
pardon all the offences you have ever committed 
against me to the present hour ; be my good son, 
and I will be your good father." The lips that 
kissed Absalom seem to have been dumb, and if 
there fell a tear it was one of pity rather than of 
joyful pardon. 

In all this there is very much s that may be ap- 
plied to show the difference between a sincere de- 
sire and a selfish desire for the favour of God, our 
rightful king and merciful Father. " Absalom felt 
it an evil to be on bad terms with his father, but 
he felt neither hatred nor sorrow for the sin that 
caused him to be so." He only hated the results 
of that sin upon his earthly condition. " He de- 
sired to be reinstated in his father's favour, simply 
because he could not otherwise compass his selfish 
projects. What he desired was the good things of 
the kingdom, not the fellowship of the king ; his 
own selfish interests, not the honour or glory of 
his father. So there are men that desire to be at 



108 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

peace with God, not because they esteem and love 
him, for his infinite goodness and excellence, but 
solely because they are alarmed for their own per- 
sonal welfare. * * It is true, indeed, that concern 
for personal safety in eternity is often the start- 
ing-point of a genuine religious career." It was so 
in the case of the Philippian jailer, and the thou- 
sands who asked on the day of Pentecost, " Men 
and brethren what shall we do ?" But if it be the 
starting-point, it is certainly not the goal. There 
is always suspicion when a man's religion amounts 
only to a concern for his welfare hereafter. 

King David knew full well that there is no for- 
giveness, or peace with God without repentance ; 
none without faith in the sacrifice that secures 
atonement for the sinner. Faith in God brought 
him peace, for he was justified, and delivered from 
the penalties of the law which he had violated. And 
not only peace, but access to the king of glory ; and 
rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God he could 
say, " Blessed is the man whom thou causest to 
approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy 
courts." Blessed is he, who in penitence and faith 
can say, "Make Thy face to shine upon thy ser- 
vant; save me for thy mercies' sake." 

And if we would ever see the King's face, and 
dwell near his throne, where angels are the minis- 
ters, and the saints are the princes of the Most 
High, let us be first justified by faith, then we shall 
have peace with God, and access through our Lord 



THE HAND OF JOAB. 109 

Jesus Christ. "We shall be sons in his house, heirs 
of his kingdom, and shall reign with our Lord for 
ever and ever. 

Return, wanderer, return, 

Thy Saviour bids thy spirit live ; 
Go to his bleeding feet and learn, 

How freely Jesus can forgive. 

10 



110 THE REBEL PRIXCE. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Absalom Tlottxng Treason. 

Treason is there in its most horrid shape, 
Where trust is greatest ! and the soul resigned, 
Is stabbed by her own guards. 

Uxder the king's kiss the traitor prepares to 
stab. As soon as Absalom is admitted to the 
court, he begins to act so badly that worse may- 
seem impossible. Ingratitude can do no more: 
treason aims at nothing less. If his rebellion sur- 
prises us, it does not surprise him. In heart and 
mind he is no stranger to it. His whole life has, 
evidently, been an advance toward the great crime 
against just government, which God has clearly 
marked with his displeasure. 

Absalom's first rebellion was against God. How 
early the symptoms of it appeared, we know not, 
but we do know that in the earliest years one may 
disobey the laws, and shake off the authority of 
heaven's King. The after life may prove an early 
want of allegiance to Jehovah. The sooner the 
child becomes loyal to God, the surer is he to be- 
come obedient unto the "powers that be" on earth. 



ABSALOM PLOTTING TREASON. Ill 

and unto him who ordained them for the good of 
men. 

His next rebellion was against the laws of home. 
Doubtless he started up prematurely to be his own 
master, and set up a government for himself. 
Many a traitor and conspirator was in childhood a 
little rebel, opposing, with all his might, the paren- 
tal authority and rules. The mother of Benedict 
Arnold was a woman of exemplary piety, and the 
parental government was the kindest, but "the 
child was father of the man." He was perverse 
from the beginning. He loved the malicious sort 
of mischief. Applause delighted him, and if he 
could not win praise by daring deeds, he made 
himself notorious by boyish lawlessness. As a 
man, treason has made him infamous. So Aaron 
Burr. What the widowed and saintly mother 
wrote of her little son, would, very likely, have 
applied to Absalom in his young days. "Most 
say that he is handsome, but not so good-tempered. 
He is very resolute, and requires a good governor 
to bring him to terms." This child was often in a 
state of rebellion. When four years old he refused 
submission to his tutor, and ran away : at ten he 
made another like experiment, and the only biogra- 
pher who has attempted to whiten his character. 
says that the "little stories" of his boyhood "ex- 
hibit the rebel merely" — the rebel against the laws 
of home. 

The third rebellion of Absalom was against the 



112 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

laws of society, and of the land. And here he 
rnav be classed -with Aaron Burr, who casting his 
shadow before, wrote, as if by prophecy, during 
his college life, his own wreck, and its cause. 
M The passions, if properly regulated, are the 
gentle gales which keep life from stagnating : but 
if let loose, they become the tempests which tear 
everything before them. Do we not frequently 
behold men of the most sprightly genius, by giving 
loose reins to their passions, lost to society, and 
reduced to the lowest ebb of misery and despair ? 
Do we not frequently behold persons of the most 
penetrating discernment, and happy turn for polite 
literature, by mingling with the sons of sensuality 
and riot, blasted in all the bloom of life?'' Yes, 
indeed, we do ! and thine own speech bewrayeth thee. 
By shaking off the best of social laws, thou makest 
thyself the very man whom thou hast portrayed ! 

All this is not enough for Absalom. He is plot- 
ting a fourth rebellion — one against the national 
government. Scarce has the impress of his father's 
kiss left him, when he is earnestly engaged in this 
nefarious business of treason. There are several 
things that aggravate his conduct in scheming a 
rebellion. 

It is plotted in the capital — at the court. If 
seeing the king's face means that he is admitted 
into the king's councils,* then he is in the very cab- 

* " To see the king's face, that is, to become a privy counsellor," 
s;«ys Matthew Henry, citing Esther L 14, where reference is made to 



ABSALOM PLOTTING TREASON. 113 

inet hatching rebellion, and, while professing al- 
legiance, is making the largest preparation for the 
overthrow of the government. Cataline, even 
while conspiring against the Roman state, trod 
the streets of the capital defiant of the grasp of 
justice, and had the boldness to take his seat in 
the senate, and listen to the scathing denunciations 
of Cicero. Absalom need not be so bold, for where 
a Cataline would mount the walls, he mines under 
them. 

It is a dangerous policy — a bad precedent. May 
he not fail against the king whom Jehovah has 
placed upon the throne ? And even if he succeed, 
may not some one rise up against him, betray, re- 
bel, and rob him of his crown ? What he gains by 
treason may he not lose by treason ? And what 
an example will he be to all his Successors ! It is 
a remarkable fact, that after the secession of the 
ten tribes, so many of their kings rose and fell by 
such conspiracies. 

It is a daring, desperate policy. God has estab- 
lished the government against which he plots. It 
is a theocracy. David is the vicar of God upon 
the throne. To conspire against it, is to conspire 
against the throne of Jehovah, and to run the ter- 
rible risk of having to contend with the Almighty. 
For ourselves, we have reason to heed the words 

certain persons, " which saw the king's face, and which sat the first 
in the kingdom." We cannot be certain, however, that Absalom 
held this position. 
10 * 



114 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

of St. Paul, " Let every soul be subject unto the 
higher powers. For there is no power but of God ; 
the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever, 
therefore, resisteth the power, resisteth the ordi- 
nance of God ; and they that resist shall receive to 
themselves damnation." • 

Absalom's scheme is a godless one. It is an 
anti-religious and infidel movement. "We cannot 
hold rebellion in too great abhorrence, as a sin 
against God and true religion. 

Rebellion ! foul dishonouring word, 

Whose wrongful blight so oft has stained 
The holiest cause that tongue or sword 

Of mortal ever lost or gained. 
How many a spirit born to bless 

Hath sunk beneath that withering name 
Whom but a day's, an hour's success 

Had wafted to eternal fame. 

There is reason to think that, at this time, there 
was in the Hebrew nation a strong element of un- 
godliness. The occasional outbursts of enthusiasm 
and patriotism were not sure evidences of piety. 
There is a lonely tone in many of the Psalms, as 
if king David felt that his devotion to God brought 
him into solitude. In his court he wanted conge- 
nial company. There was no heavenly balm in the 
breath of men around him. The irreligious Joab 
was his chief general. No Havelock was in the 
army. The ungodly Ahithophel was his chief coun- 
sellor. A deep under-current of dislike to the 
piety of David seemed to pervade the nation, and 



ABSALOM PLOTTING TREASON. 115 

only waited for Absalom to raise the flood-gates, 
when it would become a torrent, carrying all before 
it with a sweeping destruction. Such a villainous 
movement could not have had the vast support 
which it received, if even the tribe of Judah had 
possessed a firmly-settled piety. We cannot think 
much of the piety of a people who are so ready to 
rise up against a good government, and against 
such a ruler as David. And had Absalom been 
successful, scenes might have occurred similar to 
those of the French Revolution, which originated 
with infidels who sought to consummate their 
schemes by overturning the government, desecrat- 
ing the altars of the church, and declaring that re- 
ligion was banished from the realm. 

It is also a heartless scheme. "What ! Absalom 
conspire against his own father ! and such a father ! 
indulgent almost to excess, compassionate to a 
fault, and delighting in his son with a favouritism 
that astonishes us. How can he dare to rob his 
father of his crown and of his life ? Is he prompted 
only by an ambition to rule, or is he coolly seeking 
revenge for the banishment and disgrace so lately 
endured ? We cannot say that he from the first 
designs to take his father's life, but "generally, 
that which aims at the crown, aims at the head that 
wears it." 

Nor is this all. There is no cause for Absalom's 
conspiracy. Not a shadow of just complaint can 
he bring against the government, or the present 



116 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

administration. He does not represent a people 
over-ridden and oppressed. Not a word comes 
from them ; not one cry for the redress of their 
grievances ; not one plea for rights of which they 
have been deprived ; not a protest against misrule, 
nor a petition for reform. It is not a people's move- 
ment. It is the work of one man, and he the in- 
dulged Absalom, who ought to be the most grateful 
and loyal subject in the kingdom. Never did Is- 
rael have so good a government ; never was it bet- 
ter administered than by David ; never were the 
people more prosperous, more contented, and more 
happy, until this rebellious prince artfully deludes 
them into dissatisfaction by his utterly false per- 
suasions. 

Where can any motive be found for his conduct ? 
We must give Absalom the credit of a quick per- 
ception. He can easily see that his chances are 
not the brightest for his being the heir and succes- 
sor to the throne in a peaceable way. He may be 
the oldest living son, but that does not insure to 
him the succession. He has forfeited every claim 
that he may bring forward by his crimes. There 
is no precedent to favour him. No one has yet 
succeeded to the throne by the right of being the 
oldest son. David is but the second king, and he 
is not a son of the first. Jonathan was set aside 
for him. The crown may pass out of the present 
royal family by the appointment of God, especially 
as Absalom is so unworthy. He knows that he is 



ABSALOM PLOTTING TREASON. 117 

not fit for it. Or David may exercise the dispens- 
ing power, and appoint whom he considers best 
qualified to the throne. Poor hope for Absalom 
on this ground ! He may be " second to no one in 
his father's heart, but enough has passed to satisfy 
him that he holds no high place in his father's 
judgment." Besides all this, he may be aware 
that the successor is already pointed out. Solomon 
is fourteen years of age, and David may already 
have said to Bath-sheba, " Assuredly Solomon thy 
son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my 
throne in my stead." If Absalom knows of this 
promise, we can see some motive for him to hasten 
and seize the crown before his brother shall be 
strong enough to frustrate his ambition. If he 
does not know it, he can see enough to make his 
prospects in the future very precarious. To wait 
for his father's death in the order of providence 
will be quite certain to defeat his hopes. The only 
sure way is the short one ; and that short way is 
treason. 

Grive him credit for perceiving this, for it is hard 
to find anything creditable in him. It proves that 
he was no fool, but it also makes him the greater 
knave. For what right had he to the throne ? He 
was not the first-born. The eldest brother had 
fallen a victim to his revenge, if not to his ambi- 
tion for the royal power. God only intended him 
for a prince, and had qualified him to be a good 
one, by the most generous endowments. And why 



118 THE KEBEL PRINCE. 

not be what God intended ? Why seek a station 
that Providence never designed ? Why is any man 
unwilling to be just what God has fitted him to be ? 

It is the curse of mighty minds oppressed, 

To think what their state is, and what it should be ; 

Impatient of their lot, they reason fiercely, 

And call the laws of Providence unequal. 

It has been well said that "the liberty to go 
higher than we are, is only given when we have 
fulfilled the duty of our present sphere. Thus men 
are to rise upon their performances, and not upon 
their discontent." 



STEALING HEARTS. 119 



CHAPTER IX. 

Stealing Hearts. 

Smooth runs the water, where the hrook is deep, 
And in his simple show he harbours treason. 
The fox barks not when he would steal a lamb. 

Absalom must have means to carry out his re- 
bellious scheme, and hence he committed one great 
robbery. Not that of rifling the royal treasuries, 
nor that of securing to himself the best weapons 
of war; but he "stole the hearts of the men of Is- 
rael." Stole them from his father. If he could 
gain their admiration, their confidence, their affec- 
tion, and their enthusiasm, then he might be sure 
of all else — money, arms, warriors. The king 
would be left desolate. He would have the nation, 
and of course the throne. This, then, was the 
first thing to be done, and to it he gave his whole 
mind and heart. He brought into play every ac- 
complishment, every artifice, and every energy. 
There was nothing to which he would not stoop in 
order to conquer. Every wire must be worked; 
every popular fancy gratified, that he may " sit 
high in all the people's hearts." 



120 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

He turned his personal beauty to his advantage. 
Even when under disgrace -and a state prisoner in 
his own house, he seems to have cultivated the arts 
that would give him a fine appearance. A glimpse 
of him through the lattice or half-shut gate might 
strike some passer-by with admiration and pity. 
At that time he had the distinction, such as it is, 
of being the handsomest young man of his day. 
"In all Israel there was no one so much to be 
praised as Absalom for his beauty ; from the sole 
of his foot even to the crown of his head, there was 
no blemish in him.*' Had there been anything 
else good about him, this would have been well 
enough. God gave him this beauty : none should 
despise the rare gift. But he doted upon it, as is 
clearly hinted in the attention that he gave to his 
toilette. Notice is taken of his hair, not as that 
of a Nazarite, for he was far from such strictness, 
but as that of a dandy. He did not dream that 
"his hair was to be his halter," nor could he have 
failed to take the highest offence at a rebuke like 
that of a far later day, " Doth not even nature 
itself teach you, that if a man have long hair, it is 
a shame unto him?" The mystery of its weight, 
would lead us into a long discussion about shekels, 
unguents, gold-dust, modes and times of "polling," 
and the possible change of one Hebrew letter for 
another very like it, by some copyist, so that in- 
stead of "two hundred shekels," the original re- 
cord was four slick els. The average crop reaped, 



STEALING HEARTS. 121 

or the annual burden, was somewhere near four or 
five pounds, taking the locks, ointment and powder 
all together. Much or little, Absalom attached such 
importance to it, that he gloried in it until it "was 
heavy on him," and then weighed it so that even 
in his loss he might have some satisfaction. All 
this may seem trifling to us, but trifles reveal cha- 
racter. We may infer from this one thing, his 
devotion to dress and ornament. It has been said 
that "he was at the court of David what George 
IV. was to England in his day — the handsomest 
man, and at the same time of least account, in all the 
kingdom." He was the leader of fashion : the 
foppish gentleman of the times : the Chesterfield in 
Jerusalem, and the Beau Nash of all Israel. "None 
but himself can be his parallel." 

He thus attracted public attention. By gaining 
the people's eyes, he was in a fair way to steal 
their hearts. Much could be done to overcome the 
contempt of his foppery, by his engaging manners, 
his avowed interest in everybody, and his professed 
sympathies coming from a heart, apparently, the 
most frank, open, and generous. And the people 
had one reason to praise his beauty, which we may 
not so readily appreciate as they did. The lamb 
to be laid upon the altar must be " without ble- 
mish," and also the priest who offered it, and they 
seem to have considered the same bodily excellence 
as quite essential to the possessor of the throne. 
In the case of Saul, his eminent stature contributed 
11 



122 THE REBEL PRINCE, 

very much to his nomination and acceptance by the 
people; and in the appointment of David no little 
stress is laid upon the fact that " he was ruddy, 
and withal of a beautiful countenance and goodly to 
look to." This would render him the more accep- 
table to the people. Even in this qualification, he 
was equal to his brother Eliab, who had been re- 
jected by the Lord, and in the qualities of the 
heart, which the Lord valued above all else, David 
was by far the superior. The Scripture does not 
sanction this popular notion, for some of the most 
eminent men of the Bible were subject to infirmi- 
ties. 

Absalom, too, must set the people to talking — 
not in criticism, for, doubtless, there was enough 
of that already, but in admiration. He assumes a 
dignity and magnificence more than royal. The 
style of David's living appears to have been plain 
and unpretending. He had vast treasures, but 
had good use for them in making large donations 
to the tabernacle services, and to the temple which 
he proposed to have built after his death. Love 
of pomp and display was not one of his failings. 
The king's plain equipage, no doubt, seemed paltry 
and unimposing in the eyes of an Oriental people. 
But Absalom proposes to supply what David lacked. 
He sets up a splendid equipage. To multiply 
horses was in imitation of the heathen, and con- 
trary to the divine command. But a divine com- 
mand is little in the way of Absalom. He knows 



STEALING HEARTS. 123 

that it is a new, and therefore a striking luxury in 
Israel, and he gets him chariots and horses. He 
rides proudly along the streets. Fifty footmen 
run as the guard of his precious body. He creates 
a profound sensation wherever he goes, or is heard 
of, and the talk increases. His design is to assert 
his rank as the heir-apparent. He wishes to illus- 
trate his style of kingliness. What wonder, if the 
people are dazzled by his grandeur, and say as 
they stand gazing, That is the proper state and 
bearing of a king ! Had we such a monarch, we 
might rival Egypt and Assyria ! 

" The generous David," writes Bishop Hall, 
" suspects no danger from this studied ostentation. 
His partial love considers all this splendour as ex- 
pressive of joy and thankfulness ; as designed to 
do honour to their reconciliation; ^is well becoming 
the age, the rank, the beauty, the virtues of Ab- 
salom." 

But this is not enough. Absalom must talk to 
the people. He must have their ears, before he 
can get their hearts. Plutarch tells us, that 
" Menestheus is said to be the first of mankind, 
that undertook to be a demagogue, and by his elo- 
quence to ingratiate himself with the people." 
Granting that he was, it does not deprive Absalom 
of any eminence in this particular. He is no imi- 
tator of Athenian politicians. His acts are 
original with him. And in sacred history, he ap- 
pears as "the first to play that very common game 



124 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

of modern king-craft — assuming the demagogue 
for the sake of the despot — Trilling to be the peo- 
ple's man in order to be the people's master." 
Nowhere does the Bible give us a more finished 
example of the busy, artful, intriguing, and un- 
scrupulous politician. He can "smile and smile, 
and be a villain." None bows with more elegance, 
none shakes hands with tighter, lingering grasp, 
and yet in secret he may laugh at the people as 
fools easily caught by flatteries, and say to himself, 

I stole all courtesy from heaven, 
And dressed myself in such humility, 
That I did pluck allegiance from men's hearts, 
Loud shouts and salutations from their mouths, 
Even in the presence of the crowned king. 

He brings a singular amount of energy and per- 
severance to bear upon his scheme. He "rises up 
early," after a night of, perhaps, restless plotting, 
and stands by the way of the gate, to make him- 
self agreeable and useful to all who may be in dif- 
ficulty. A great deal of sapping and mining must 
be done, and to have it well done, he must do it 
himself. He assumes to be the advocate of popu- 
lar rights ; the fast and loving friend of the people. 

And now forsooth, takes on him to reform 
Some certain edicts and more strait decrees 
That lie too heavy on the commonwealth : 
Cries out upon abuses, seems to weep 
Over his country's wrongs : and by his face, 
The seeming brow of justice, did he win 
The hearts of all that he did angle for. 

Many have controversies, petitions and appeals 



STEALING HEART'S. 125 

to lay before the king. Difficulties growing up be- 
tween the tribes of Israel ; losses incurred by the 
dwellers on the^ borders, who have often suffered 
from the raids of their heathen neighbours ; dama- 
ges and back-pay due to those who had suffered or 
served in war ; contentions between rival chieftains 
about their degrees of rank, and urgent requests 
for promotion and office, may be daily requiring 
the attention of the royal mind. He is overbur- 
dened with them. He cannot, in a day, settle the 
affairs urgently brought forward. Some must de- 
lay, have patience, come again, and not even then 
be sure of a hearing. Absalom watches such suit- 
ors, and calls out to them, draws them aside, asks 
their city and their tribes, inquires into their cause 
or complaint, and of course takes the side of every 
man who comes. " See, thy matters are good and 
right." 

But he does not offer to be the advocate of those 
who need one to speak for them ; nor go to the 
king and urge him to attend to the suit. He will 
not help his father in this pressure of business and 
care, but he throws out an insinuation against him, 
to excite a bad opinion of the present administra- 
tion. " There is no man deputed of the king to 
hear thee." None from the king downward will 
see that justice is done to the people ! Thus 



-He, the nearest to the king, 



Lay couchant with his eyes upon the throne, 
Ready to spring, waiting a chance ; for this, 
11 * 



126 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

He chilled the popular praises of the king 
With silent smiles of low disparagement. 

And then, in his pretended pity for them, and 
his great desire to relieve them of the injuries they 
suffer from the neglect of the court, or the long 
postponement of their causes, he exclaims, " that 
I were made judge in the land, that every man 
which hath any suit or cause might come unto me, 
and I would, do him justice !" It would be too 
daring to wish himself king. And to show what 
sort of a judge he proposes to be, he meets every 
man who bows to him, puts forth his hand, and 
kisses him. " He croucheth and humbleth himself 
to draw them into his net." They do not see that 
"such popular humility is treason." They are 
ready to say, " Oh, that we were judged by such a 
man as Absalom !" They return home to their 
tribes, and spread through the country the most 
glowing accounts of the prince's beauty, his splen- 
did horses, his gilded chariots, his swift out-run- 
ners, his devotion to the people's rights, his early 
rising, his late diligence, his sympathies with the 
poor and the oppressed, and his amazing conde- 
scension. They blaze abroad the abilities which he 
possesses, and the advantages that may be ex- 
pected from his reign. Thus " The hearts of the 
men of Israel are after Absalom." He has not 
simply won them — he has stolen them. It is a 
theft. He has no right to them. He has used the 
most dishonest means to get them. He has played 



STEALING HEARTS. 127 

the hypocrite, and sat as a dissembler. He is a 
thief, robbing his father of the people's love, patri- 
otism, loyalty, and willing obedience. They com- 
plain of the administration. They grumble at the 
lawful tithes and taxes. They are slow to sup- 
port the government. All seems to go wrong, and 
nothing will be right until Absalom reigns. 

David does not yet perceive" the vast robbery. 
He is the rather glad to see his brilliant son rising 
in the popular favour. Perhaps he has commended 
Absalom for his winning manners and his interest 
in the people. It is said that Philip of Macedon 
wrote to his son Alexander, advising him to draw 
to himself the minds of the people by a generous 
style of speech and a winning address. It may 
have been thus with David. He will not discover 
this bold robbery until he is driven from the throne 
— nay, not until after Absalom has perished, and 
he endeavours to unite the people again in alle- 
giance to himself. Then he will find a strife of par- 
ties, a revolt of the ten tribes, and the seditious 
cry raised aloud, " We have no part in David, nei- 
ther have we inheritance in the son of Jesse ; every 
man to his tents, Israel!" Then he will know 
how extensive the mischief of the princely robber, 
when under his father's protection, he " stole the 
hearts of the men of Israel." 

Well has it been written, " He that trifles with 
the affections, or steals the heart of another, for his 
own pleasure, or interest, is equally unprincipled," 



128 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

as he who robs a bank, or plunders his neighbour's 
goods. In God's sight, it may be a greater crime. 
" He that seduces a young person from his duty 
and regard to his parents ; he that lures a young 
inquirer from the Christian minister or friend who 
is guiding him ; above all, he that tries to withdraw 
one from his duty to God, and from the love of 
Christ, on pretence of making him happier else- 
where, is not only guilty of stealing, but is commit- 
ting his daring theft on the most hallowed ground 
and on the falsest pretences. Let the young and 
inexperienced beware of those who attempt to steal 
away their hearts from their parents, their teach- 
ers, their ministers, their more grave and serious 
friends." 

Let not the serpent tongue, 
Prompt to deceive, with adulation smooth, 
Gain on your purposed will. 



ALL ISKAEL IN REBELLION. 129 



CHAPTER X. 

All Israel in Rebellion. 

He was a man 
Who stole the livery of the court of heaven, 
To serve the devil in. — Pollok. 

The plot of Absalom was now ripe for execution. 
The date given is, "After forty years." Forty 
years after what ? The return of the prince from 
exile ? This could not be, for David reigned only 
thirty-three years in Jerusalem. It was, probably, 
but four years after his return, as stated by Jose- 
phus. Some have supposed that the reading should 
be four, instead of forty. Or was it forty years 
after David took the throne? This would make 
the rebellion occur in the last year of his reign, 
which is not probable. The date may be reckoned 
from the time when David was anointed by Samuel ; 
or from the time that the people first desired a 
king, and therefore, in the fortieth year of the 
monarchy. Matthew Henry adopts this last view, 
and says ; " It is fitly dated from thence, to show 
that the same restless spirit was still working, and 
still they were given to change ; as fond now of a 



130 rzi :ieel PRIV 

new man, as then of a new model." It may be 
pnt down as occurring in about the thirtieth year 
of David's reign, when Absalom was about twenty- 
five years old. 

The moment chosen by Absalom to strike the 
blow, was doubtless the most favourable that he 
could find. No war called his father into the field, 
so that he could stir up a war behind him and seize 
the throne. This fact, however, most likely, had 
an effect upon the army which Absalom noticed 
with pleasure. The rank and file of the army v 
not kept up. Long furloughs may have been 
granted to the soldiers, and they engaged at their 
homes. Disorganization had begun. Military 
discipline was relaxed. The men in service may 
have been sent herte and there, to guard the bor- 
ders. No large body of forces was near the capi- 
tal. Only a few trusty bands were ready to serve 
the king at an hour's warning. Joab seemed to be 
reposing, and had it not been for the affair of burn- 
ing the general's barley, Absalom might dare to 
approach him with his plot. Thus the king was 
off his guard, and unprepared for a great outbreak. 
If in sudden alarm he should call for men, they 
would not come, for the prince had stolen their 
hearts. 

But this does not seem to be all. A great 
change has come over the king. He is not the 
warrior that he once was. He has hung up his 
armour and sheathed his sword as if resolved 



STEALING HEARTS. 131 

fight no more. He seems humbled and broken- 
hearted ; his spirit reviving mostly when his voice 
chimes with his harp in a new song, or when he 
talks of the plans for the temple. And still fur- 
ther : he seems to be disabled and infirm. There are 
allusions in the Psalms to an almost fatal illness, and 
to treachery practised upon him during that illness. 

" I am feeble and sore broken They also 

that seek after my life lay snares for me." (Ps. 
xxxviii., xxxix.) At such a time Absalom might 
find some small pretext for uttering a fling at the 
administration, and the inefficiency of his father in 
judging the causes of the people. Some have sup- 
posed, that soon after this*long illness Absalom 
brought his rebellion to a crisis. It gives us a yet 
darker impression of his villainy and hardness of 
heart, if he chose a time when his* father was just 
recovering from disease, to inflict upon his aged 
head a crowning sorrow and disgrace, if not indeed 
a deadly blow. 

The place of rendezvous was wisely chosen. 
Everything favoured Hebron. It was so near Je- 
rusalem that a night's hasty march would make the 
distance. It had been the seat of government, and 
the birth-place of the prince, which would give 
some advantage to his pretensions. It is possible 
that the removal of the throne from that ancient 
and sacred city was a wound upon the inhabitants 
which time had not healed. They, perhaps, felt 
deprived of their rights, and cherished a lingering 



132 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

discontent, in which nearly all Judah would natu- 
rally participate. Absalom may have counted upon 
their dissatisfaction. Moreover, the people had 
once been ready to hail and support David when 
he appeared to be in revolt against Saul, and why 
not as quickly welcome and aid Absalom against 
David ? Hebron was, also, a stronghold easily de- 
fended. The rebels could post themselves among 
the windings of the mountains, and bar out all at- 
tacking forces. 

There was something, not only in the position, 
but in the spirit of Judah to encourage Absalom, 
more than in any other tribe. From the first it 
had been disposed to claim pre-eminence, and to 
act for itself. Each tribe had its own local govern- 
ment and its ruler, (1 Chron. xxvii. 16-22), and 
sometimes the doctrine of tribe-rights, or " state 
rights," was advocated, but it was speedily rebuked 
and its tendency checked. But the rights of Ju- 
dah were not simply those of a tribe ; they were 
those of a great party. Already had Judah, em- 
bracing Benjamin, been upon one side, and the ten 
tribes on the other. Absalom could more easily 
gain the one tribe of Judah, and its strong party, 
than the ten tribes, if he should not be able to gain 
the entire twelve. 

Yet he hoped, and prepared to secure them all. 
His grand robbery, in stealing the hearts of the 
people, gave him confidence enough to order thorn 
to raise the standard of revolt in every tribe. He 



STEALING HEARTS. 133 

sent spies far and wide, to be ready for the signal 
trump, and then proclaim aloud, "Absalom reign- 
eth in Hebron." 

And now what does he propose as a motive for 
going to Hebron ? A feast ? That might call up 
Baal-hazor and awaken suspicion. A princely ex- 
cursion ? That might secure him too much unin- 
vited company. A visit to his birth-place ? That 
would not afford him company enough of the sort 
he wished. But a vow — a holy pilgrimage — no- 
thing could be better, for a cloak of religion will 
cover his treachery. A lie will serve his purpose, 
for nobody can disprove his declaration. It will 
completely deceive his father, though it be a solemn 
mockery of God. It is difficult to sound the depth 
of villainy and hypocrisy which could frame the 
plea made to his father, with such apparent defer- 
ence and submission. " I pray thee, let me go and 
pay my vow, which I have vowed unto the Lord 
[to be redeemed] in Hebron. For thy servant 
vowed a vow while I abode at Geshur in Syria, 
saying, If the Lord shall bring me again indeed to 
Jerusalem, then I will serve the Lord." In this 
there was falsehood somewhere. If he had never 
made such a vow, then he invented a lie. If he 
had made such a vow, then he knew that he was 
false in saying, "I will serve the Lord." Such a 
real sincere service never came within the scope of 
his honest intentions. " Seeming devotion doth 
but gild the knave." 
12 



134 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

David is easily deceived. He knows how often 
men make vows in their times of trouble. Jacob, 
in his anxiety and fear, " vowed a vow, saying, If 
God will be with me, and will keep me in this way 
that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and rai- 
ment to put on, so that I come again to my father's 
house in peace ; then shall the Lord be my God." 
May not David believe that his son imitated so ex- 
cellent an example ? and the king knows how to 
fulfil them, saying, " I will go into thy house with 
burnt-offerings ; I will pay thee my vows, which 
my lips have uttered, and my mouth hath spoken 
when I was in trouble." How ready then is he to 
believe all the good he can of his son, and to think 
that he is now about to imitate the better conduct 
of his father ! " How glad is the good old king, 
that he is blessed with so pious a son !" It is well 
that the very letter of so holy a vow be fulfilled ! 
Let him go to Hebron. The words, " Go in peace," 
indicate a father's blessing upon him. In the 
world there have been vile characters enough, but 
even hypocrisy can furnish very few with blacker 
hearts than that of Absalom. How good the reli- 
gion which men thus counterfeit ! Every act of 
religious hypocrisy is a commendation of the real 
value of true religion. Yet " hypocritical piety is 
but double iniquity." 

Absalom was very choice of his company for this 
pilgrimage. He would not have in his train only 
" lewd fellows of the baser sort," however conge- 



STEALING HEARTS. 135 

nial to him. He culled out two hundred men, no 
doubt sober, substantial citizens, and invited them 
to attend the feast upon his sacrifice. They went 
in their simplicity of heart, and knew not anything 
of the deep treachery underlying his pretensions. 
He dare not trust them with his plot, for they were 
loyal men, who would shrink in abhorrence from a 
design upon the throne. But their presence would 
lead the common people to suppose that they had 
deserted the king, and were supporting the prince. 
If David's best friends had forsaken him, why 
should anybody pretend to regard loyalty as too 
sacred to be renounced ? 

At Hebron, Absalom ventured upon the solemn 
rites of sacrifice. How this would give him favour 
with the inhabitants, and peaceable possession of 
the city ! It would provide him, a feast, they fur- 
nishing the provisions. So devout a prince would 
find them in eager rivalry to show him hospitality. 
What thanksgivings he must have offered for his 
safe return from Geshur ! But he fears to rely al- 
together upon his own craftiness. He wants ad- 
vice. The pirate ship may wreck in getting it out 
to sea, unless he have a skilful pilot. 

He has already learned the right man for the 
helm, and sends for him. And now appears a con- 
spirator who was the equal of Absalom in baseness 
— Ahithophel, a crafty but most able man, once 
high in the councils of David, and whose capacity 
largely consisted in a total lack of conscience. He 



136 THE KEBEL PRINCE. 

was now acting in the import of his name, and was 
literally the "brother of foolishness;" a very sin- 
gular name for one who was renowned, throughout 
all Israel, for his political sagacity. Absalom had 
stolen his heart, a thing not hard to do, for it was 
open to the plunder of his allegiance. For some 
reason he had left the court, and was at Griloh his 
native town. Perhaps, either king or counsellor 
has become disgusted with the other, and this fa- 
miliar friend, in whom David trusted, which did 
eat of his bread, as Judas, afterwards, did that of 
his Lord, was ready to enter into a conspiracy. 
Absalom knew the importance of such a man to his 
cause, for "the counsel of Ahithophel, which he 
counselled in those days, was as if a man had in- 
quired at the oracle of God." The people had so 
regarded it with David, and would be ready to 
give it the same weight if thrown on the side of 
Absalom. 

The prince seems now to be king. His move- 
ment has prospered to a wish. Cheering news 
come in from every quarter. The strategies have 
been complete. The trumpet has rolled the sig- 
nal through the land. At place after place, the 
proclamation has been made, and the people have 
declared for Absalom. Some are ready to believe 
that the king is dying, or dead. Some are restless 
for a new ruler. Some remember how they were 
advised and caressed by the condescending prince. 
Some do not quite like the movement, but think 



STEALING HEARTS. 137 

■ 

that it will succeed at any rate, and they may as 
well worship success. Many fear a dreadful war, 
when prices must rise, taxes increase, property be 
destroyed, and brothers meet each other on fields of 
slaughter, and they imagine that the shortest me- 
thod of staying these horrors is to let the rebellion 
have its way. Patriotism yields to policy. Others 
shout for the usurper, rejoicing in the very ungod- 
liness that has made effective his appeal to the 
hearts of the people. And thus it goes on increas- 
ing in every city and hamlet, until the conspiracy 
is strong. The uprising is so general that those 
who are half in fear, and half in favour, scarcely 
call it a rebellion. It is a revolution in their eyes. 
It is a great protest against the administration ; or 
by some softer name they aid the treason. The 
people flock to the standard of revolt in such num- 
bers that the whole nation seems to be giving its 
adherence to Absalom. Soldiers come, and there 
is no scarcity, of course, in the voluntary supplies 
of officers. All the men of Israel seem to be upon 
the ground. An army begins to be organized, 
such as never had been marshalled in the vale of 
Hebron. In their enthusiasm they grow wild in 
their wickedness. They seem to ridicule the piety, 
as well as the power of David, and boast that even 
God cannot help or deliver him. In the second 
Psalm David refers to the vast multitudes gather- 
ing to the prince's standard, as " Ten thousands 
of people." And he prays in calmness of spirit, 
12 * 



138 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

" Lord, how are they increased that trouble me ? 
How many are they that rise up against me ! 
Many there be which say of my soul, There is no 
help for him in God." 

We may suppose that there came to Absalom 
many of those classes of people, who once enlisted 
under David when he hid in the cave of Adullam, 
and needed an army against Saul. "And every 
one that was in distress, and every one that was in 
debt, and every one that was discontented, ga- 
thered themselves unto him." Poor material for 
an army, one would suppose, so far as the moral 
element was concerned, but the best that David 
once could get, and now the very sort that well 
suits Absalom. David could reform such men, but 
there is no hope of their improvement under the 
prince, unless they are moved by a disgust of his 
impiety to aim at the extreme from his example. 
With his troop of noble men whom he has deceived, 
of bad men whom he has attracted, of soldiers and 
office-seekers, of hangers-on and stragglers and 
desperados, the prince prepares to march towards 
Jerusalem. 

He has all the encouragement that outward suc- 
cess can impart. But does not conscience rebuke 
and check him ? He must need to make repeated 
effort to silence it. He must sometimes stand as- 
tonished and aghast, when he thinks of what he is 
about to do. Amid all the excitement of success- 
ful schemes a vague horror must steal upon his 



STEALING HEARTS. 139 

soul. A dark vision of outraged justice must 
haunt him. He may scare away the hideous 
spectre, but he cannot lay it in its grave. And he 
surrenders himself to his vile counsellor Ahithophel, 
as Judas lent himself to Satan. 



140 THE REBEL PRINCE. 



CHAPTER XI. 

The Flight of the Ming. 

He who hath never warred with misery, 
Nor ever tugged with fortune and distress 
Hath had no occasion, nor no field to try 
The strength and forces of his worthiness. 
Eor only men show their abilities, 
And what they are in their extremities. 

" And there came a messenger to David, saying, 
The hearts of the men of Israel are after Absalom." 
The king can surmise the rest. The plot, the 
heart-stealing, the vow, the visit to Hebron, are all 
revealed in a flash ; a moment more and the thun- 
ders of war may be heard. Yet not a word of as- 
tonishment or a wail of helplessness is heard from 
his lips. Nor is he stunned into silence, and stu- 
pified by fear. He speaks as one who sees the 
wisest course to take, in the same flash that has 
disclosed the overhanging danger. 

David is always great in adversity. In the fur- 
nace glows the gold. His greatness does not de- 
pend on his royalty. It is within his lofty soul, 
and is inseparable from his commanding character. 



THE FLIGHT OF THE KING. 141 

And now when many other men would be distracted 
or shocked, neither his piety, nor his generosity, 
nor his prudence desert him. His goodness, pa- 
tience, and resignation are much as ever conspi- 
cuous. He is now self-possessed, though in haste. 
It is no time for deliberation. Yet in his speedy 
action there is no flutter nor bewilderment. In 
his conduct you see the training of the veteran 
warrior who has often had to act in sudden emer- 
gencies and perilous surprises. We think, at 
once, of our own great Washington, in the darkest 
hour of the revolution, when the enemy was press- 
ing in with forces too strong to resist ; when his 
wise and quick retreats began to be called disgraces 
by those who had more envy than valour in their 
souls ; when his friends grew fewer in numbers and 
fainter in heart ; when his jealous .rivals were sus- 
pected of conspiring against him from motives quite 
as base as those of Absalom or Arnold ; when pa- 
triots were faltering, and a brave army was almost 
worn down into despair ; and when, with feelings 
something like those of David at the outburst of 
the rebellion against the throne and liberties of 
Israel, he wrote to congress, " You can form no 
idea of the perplexity of my situation. No man, I 
believe, ever had a greater choice of evils, and less 
means to extricate himself from them. However, 
under a full persuasion of the justice of our cause, 
I cannot entertain an idea that it will finally sink, 
though it may remain for some time under a cloud." 



142 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

There he was, like both David and St. Paul, "trou- 
bled on every side, yet not. distressed ; perplexed, 
but not in despair ; persecuted, but not forsaken ; 
cast down, but not destroyed." How great in ad- 
versity ! It was the element in which his high- 
est graces shone out. Then his quick eye saw at 
a glance, the bold measures for the sudden emer- 
gency, saying, in reference to what seemed an as- 
sumption of power, "A character to lose, an 
estate to forfeit, the inestimable blessings of liberty 
at stake, and a life devoted, must be my excuse." 
Sublime spirit ! whose fatherly love for his country 
Heaven knew better than the people whom he 
served, and breathing kindly upon the gloom God 
dispersed it, and standing on the banks of the De- 
laware, he said, "Go over," and making Trenton 
the door of hope, he turned victory to our armies, 
and to our land deliverance. Transfer this power 
to act wisely and promptly in extremities of need 
to the king of Israel, and learn how 

Affliction is the good man's shining scene; 
Prosperity conceals his brightest ray ; 
As night to stars, woe lustre gives to man. 

Great generals are known by their wise retreats, 
as well as by their successful engagements, pro- 
vided that they seize upon every promising oppor- 
tunity for victory. King David sees at once, that 
he must retreat from Jerusalem. He is not sur- 
prised into cowardice. King James II. of England, 



THE FLIGHT OF THE KING. 148 

when he knew that William of Orange was hasten- 
ing with an army against London, took fright, 
thought of himself, feared his personal fate, and 
secretly escaped from the capital, leaving the peo- 
ple as unprotected sheep to the mercies of the in- 
coming shepherd. It was well that he did ; the 
coming prince was not a wolf. But David was not 
an hireling, fleeing, and leaving the flock to the 
wolf Absalom. Not himself alone, but the people, 
must be saved from violence. His retreat was 
dictated by motives of policy and humanity. 

Safety demanded it. In saving himself he was 
saving the crown. The authority to govern would 
still be vested in him. He could leave the city 
and yet not surrender the throne. " Arise, and 
let us flee, for we shall not else escape from Absa- 
lom; make speed to depart lest. he overtake us 
suddenly and bring evil upon us." 

Another reason for leaving Jerusalem was, lest 
Absalom should " smite the city with the edge of 
the sword." In his humanity, David was anxious 
to ward off the contest, and save the crowded capi- 
tal from murder and rapine. It were better to 
carry the war into the wilderness, where property 
would not be exposed, and the lives of innocent 
women and children endangered. His heart was 
set upon Jerusalem, and he could not bear the 
thought of her walls being stormed, her towers 
razed, her palaces laid in the dust. Let the blow 
fall upon him, and not the city which he preferred 



144 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

above his chief joy. Here were patriotism and 
piety ; a love for country overruling all personal 
considerations, and a devotion to the church which 
made personal sacrifices little in his own eyes ; what 
matter if the commander risk, or even lose his life, 
so that the ship and all her precious freight be 
saved ! 

It did not seem possible to defend the city 
against the rebels. The monthly quota of the 
militia was not present, owing to the disorganiza- 
tion of the army that had begun to prevail. In 
the time of peace, he had not kept himself prepared 
for war. And where was Joab, the general-in- 
chief ? He does not appear upon the scene. He 
ought to have had his eye upon the movements of 
the conspirators. What wonder if the king more 
than half suspected that his ingenuities and persis- 
tence in restoring Absalom, were a part of the re- 
bellious scheme. Or was he hesitating, and weigh- 
ing the matter in the balance, to see which party 
would have the decisive power, the government 
and the dispensation of offices ? Strange that he 
has not appeared already, urging the king to take 
speedy measures for suppressing the forming re- 
bellion. But wait, he will yet come forth, loyal to 
his king, and in fury against the arch-rebel on the 
field. David had some reason to believe that the 
arts of the prince had so corrupted the people in 
the very capital that the city was full of spies, in- 
triguers, informers, and desperate traitors. There 



THE FLIGHT OF THE KING. 145 

might be rebels in his own cabinet, and bis own 
house. Only his "servants" — his reliable and 
honourable friends ever ready to serve him — seemed 
to be with him when the alarming report came to 
his ears. He had reason to fear that he was 

Deserted at his utmost need, 
By those his former bounty fed. 

And all Israel might be in defection and rebel- 
lion. If strong and loyal Judah was open to Ab- 
salom; if Hebron was in the rebel's hands; if none 
of Benjamin's almost sixty thousand warriors were 
upon the ground; if none of the veterans who had 
marched and triumphed with him in his earlier 
campaigns were present in the enthusiasm of their 
loyalty; if none of the victors who had conquered 
Philistia, smitten Moab, broken the Northern 
League, humbled the southern powers of Edom, 
and demolished Rabbath-Ammon, were gathering 
to his defence, and if it seemed vain to call for 
men, and ruinous to wait for their coming, how 
could he hope to defend the city against the insur- 
gents, who had prepared themselves for the onset 
and might at any hour come storming through the 
defenceless gates ? He fears that, 

the hearts 



Of all his people shall revolt from him, 
And kiss the lips of unacquainted change. 

Not yet does he know that a few tried bands are 
faithful. Not until he has packed for the depar- 
13 



146 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

ture, and left all in order at his palace, and gone 
forth to a place afar off, lingering to see that all 
his servants and family are safe as they pass on 
beside him, does he seem to know that a few sol- 
diers are loyal and ready to cast in their fortune 
with that of the king. The Cherethites and Pe- 
lethites are there in their full numbers, under their 
bold captain, Benaiah, one of David's three 
mighties, and afraid of neither lions, Moabites, nor 
Egyptians.* There, too, in the train, are the Git- 
tites, six hundred men which came after him from 
Gath, once Philistines, but now devoted friends, 
and with the others composing the body guard of 
the king, the "legion of honour," or the royal 
brigade. "While Absalom is acting worse than an 
alien, these foreigners are exhibiting the spirit of 
adopted sons. When foreigners are so ready to 
sustain an administration, it is a good proof of the 
mildness and justice of the government. 

And now we have one of the most touching 
scenes and affecting specimens of an unselfish 
king and a loyal subject. David would force no 
man to remain in his service, especially if he must 
share the perils in prospect. " Good men, when 
they suffer themselves, care not how few are in- 
volved with them in suffering. Generous souls are 
more concerned at the shares others have in their 
troubles, than at their own." The king's eye falls 
upon Ittai the Gittite, who had, probably been a 

* 2 Sam. viii. 18 : xxiii. 20-23. 



THE FLIGHT OF THE KING. 147 

leading man among the Philistines, had lately left 
his country, sought adoption in the kingdom and 
city of David, and considered himself a naturalized 
citizen. There was no moral obligation upon him 
to volunteer his services, and no sordid motive in 
his heart in continuing as the captain of the Git- 
tites. A stranger and an exile he was not bound 
to share the trials of a fugitive king, and David 
says to him, " Wherefore goest thou also with us ? 
return to thy place and abide with the [new] king, 
for thou art a stranger and also an exile. Whereas 
thou comest but yesterday, should I this day make 
thee go up and down with us ? Seeing I go whither 
I may, return thou, and take back thy brethren; 
and mercy and truth be with thee." 

It has been suggested that David wished thus to 
test the loyalty and sincerity of this noble fo- 
reigner, by showing him the hardness of the ser- 
vice and the uncertainty of the result. Somewhat 
as our Saviour tested the motives and the doctrine 
of one who said, " Lord, I will follow thee whither- 
soever thou goest," by answering, "Foxes have 
holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son 
of man hath not where to lay his head." No 
doubt David acted with that noble consideration 
for others which so strongly marks his character, 
and placed his own interest out of view, but even 
on the ground that he wished to bring this captain's 
loyalty to the test, we should not lose the force of 
his reply. It shows us the true spirit of devotion 



148 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

to the rightful authority in government, and to the 
cause of the great Master. In neither, should the 
hardness of the service be a reason for declining and 
going back, and submitting to an authority raised 
over us by rebellion. Mere policy and ease are not 
the decisive considerations. The principle of right 
should decide us. It is right to serve David, and 
wrong to serve Absalom, and therefore Ittai will 
go with the lawful king, no matter if he knows not 
whither he may be driven or what he must endure. 
He loves his adopted country, and will not desert 
its constitutional government in a trying hour. 
Policy is nothing ; patriotism rises as far above it 
as the star of David's night is high above the 
trembling lamp in the tent of Absalom. It is a 
patriotism that will cost him something ; even 
blood may flow for it, and life may be the price 
thereof. But it cannot be bartered for the mere 
exemption from trial and endurance. It cannot be 
bought from him by the temptations of Jerusalem. 
It is a sort of a national wisdom that cannot be 
gotten from him for gold, neither shall silver be 
weighed for the price thereof. It cannot be valued 
with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx or 
the sapphire. The exchange of it shall not be 
made for jewels of fine gold. And as a noble pa- 
triot he replies, " As the Lord liveth, and as my 
lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord, 
the king, shall be, whether in death or life, even 
there also will thy servant be." It is saying from 



THE FLIGHT OF THE KING. 149 

a heart that loves his country and his king, " En- 
treat me not to leave thee, or to return from fol- 
lowing after thee ; for whither thou go est I will go ; 
and where thou lodgest I will lodge ; thy people 
shall be my people, and thy God my God ; where 
thou diest I will die, and there also will I be buried ; 
the Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but 
death part thee and me." 

And this patriotism is but a type of the piety 
and devotion which we should cherish towards Da- 
vid's greater Son, the great King in Zion. We 
should follow him with all this ardour, remembering, 
"No man having put his hand to the plough and 
looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." 
Through evil and through good report, we should 
cleave to him, determined that neither life nor 
death, principalities nor powers, shall separate us 
from his service and his love. And if in some 
testing moment, when he seems to be almost de- 
serted, he ask us, " Will ye also go away ?" let us 
be able to reply, " Lord, to whom shall we go but 
unto thee ? Thou hast the words of eternal life." 

To thee we still would cleave 

With ever-growing zeal, 
If millions tempt us Christ to leave, 

Oh let them ne'er prevail. 

And our great King will accept our service, as 
cheerfully as David accepted that of the patriotic 
foreigner, who gladdened the heart that was beat- 
ing more in anxiety for his friends than in fear of 
13* 



150 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

his foes. Nor is this all the encouragement that 
David has. The people have not all forsaken and 
betrayed him. He does not feel so deserted as our 
Lord felt, when on nearly the same path He crossed 
the brook Kedron and entered Gethsemane. The 
people show their attachment by their tears. "All 
the country wept with a loud voice." And, as 
Matthew Henry says, " Cause enough there was 
for weeping. To see a prince thus reduced ; one 
that had lived so great, forced from his palace, and 
in fear of his life, with a small retinue, seeking 
shelter in a desert ; the city of David which he 
himself won, built, and fortified, made an unsafe 
abode for David himself; it would move the com- 
passion even of strangers to see a man fallen thus 
low from such a height, and this by the wickedness 
of his own son ; a piteous case it was. To see him 
in this distress, and themselves unable to help him, 
might well draw floods of tears from their eyes." 
And without sacrilege, he might have turned and 
said, as our Lord afterwards did to the daughters 
of Jerusalem, as they followed him to Calvary, 
" Weep not for me, but for yourselves and your 
children." 

Nor was this all the sympathy that David re- 
ceived. Added to those who would fight for him, 
and weep for him, were those who would pray for 
him, and support him by all the consolations of re- 
ligion. He was surprised to find that in their zeal 
for his cause, the priests and Levites had brought 



THE FLIGHT OF THE KING. 151 

the " ark of the covenant of God" from the city, 
and proposed that it should be borne with the king. 
It was the symbol of God's presence. They 
thought that the interests of the government and 
the interests of the church were closely allied, and 
should not be separated. The ark should go with 
its protector, that God may the more surely pro- 
tect him. Once " David would not rest until he 
had found a resting-place for the ark ; and now if 
the priests may have their mind, the ark shall not 
rest until David returns to his rest." Its presence 
would afford him great advantage. It would in- 
vest his cause with sacredness in the eyes of all 
good men. They would hope the more strongly, 
that God's favour would be secured to him. Its 
absence from Absalom would also suggest the ab- 
sence of God's countenance, and Jielp to prove the 
utter ungodliness of his rebellion. But the king 
objected to this movement. God had said of Zion, 
" This is my rest, here will I dwell," and even un- 
der this unexpected emergency, David would not 
disturb that arrangement. The hurry of flight 
and the tumult of battle did not befit that sacred 
symbol. God's presence was not limited to the 
ark, nor would its return exclude religion from the 
army. He sent it back, and the priests also, car- 
ing more for the church's prosperity than for his 
own welfare, and saying with hope for the best, 
and resignation to the worst, " If I shall find fa- 
vour in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me 



152 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

again, and show me both it, and his habitation. 
But if he thus say, I have no delight in thee ; be- 
hold here I am, let him do to me as seemeth good 
unto him." 

The priests were to watch events in the city, and 
send word to the king of what was transpiring. 
Thus he would learn wisdom from the rebels, from 
the ministers of God, and from a superintending 
Providence. If the priests were not to fight, they 
were, at least, to lend their loyal aid to the gov- 
ernment when he was attacked by those who sought 
to usurp it. With such wise arrangements behind 
him, he directed his way to " the plain of the wil- 
derness" toward Jericho. 

" He intended," writes Dr. Kitto, " to proceed 
to the country beyond the Jordan, and then collect 
his resources and watch the progress of events. 
From the people beyond the river he had received 
many proofs of attachment, and his wars had 
brought him much into connection with them, and 
had materially advanced their prosperity, and he 
thought that he might count on their fidelity. The 
geographical position was also well suited to his 
purpose, and the step seems to have been, under 
all the circumstances, the best that could have been 
taken." 



DAVID WEPT. 153 



CHAPTER XII. 

David Wept. 

Woe awaits a country when 

She sees the tears of bearded men. 

It is the second time that David's tears over 
Absalom's criminal conduct have been impressed 
upon the Scripture page. Under the excitement 
of arranging his escape from the city, getting the 
troops, the people and "the little ones" over the 
brook Kedron, and planning the future march, he 
could perhaps refrain from tears. The multitude 
wept for him, but he must bear up with more than 
manly strength, or their wild commotion would 
hinder the flight. But as soon as the stress of 
thought is over, and the mind relaxes, his feelings 
overpower him. He realizes his situation. He 
cannot forget Jerusalem, and for her his tears must 
fall. In such haste has he escaped, that he is not 
only on foot, but bare-foot. For shame and in 
mortification he covers his head. We may imagine 
him going forth as an old man, a miserable fugi- 
tive, driven forth from a people whose indepen- 
dence as a nation he has established, and by the 



154 THE REBEL PRENCE. 

cruelties of a son whose life has been his gift : and 
as he looks back, from the first hill that he elin 
npon the city once captured by his arms, built up 
by his toils, eautified by his enterprise, and made 
. rious by the presence of the Lord's tabernacle 
which he brought into it with rejoicing, he g: 
: : the anguish caused by the memories of the 
st, the dangers of the present, and the darkii — - 
of the future. No scowl is on his brow, no scorn 
upon his lips, no murmur — nothing but a great out- 
gushing grief. But no imaginary picture can be 

diking as that drawn by inspiration, for God 
traced the outlines, and He excels all others in 
portraying the grief of his servants. u And David 
went up by the ascent of Mount Olivet, and wept 
as he went up, and had his head covered, and he 
went barefoot ; and all the people that was with 
him, covered every man his head, and they went 
up. weeping as they went up." 

Kll_ Z wi I in his offices and character was a 
type of our Lord Jesua Christ — imperfect type, 
the best that humanity could furnish. It was de- 
signed that he should throw a strong light upon the 
person, character, :± sea . work and sufferings of 
the great Redeemer. "We can understand the hu- 
man, and this may lead us to the Divine. David's 
oneness with his people, ever identifying himself 

i them in joy an tv P e °f tue one ~ 

aa of Christ and all believers. In David's ma- 
jesty and mildness as a king, we see the figure 



DAVID WEPT. 155 

Him who is the Lion and the Lamb. David's loy- 
alty to God earned him the title, " My servant 
David;" thus fore-shadowing the devotedness of 
him to whom the Father declared, " This is my be- 
loved Son, in whom I am well pleased." The 
ancient saints based their idea of the coming Mes- 
siah very much upon the character of David. And 
hence when Jesus came with wondrous works, and 
words more wondrous still, " The people were 
amazed and said, Is not this the Son of David?" 
It was the popular title given him. By that name 
the people praised him, and the afflicted begged for 
mercy. It had come to be the common sentiment, 
that to the warm, fatherly heart of Israel's great- 
est king, no appeal for compassion was ever made 
in vain, and thus the unfortunate and the sinful 
came to think that in Jesus they might have " The 
sure mercies of David." 

But in David's sorrowful experiences he comes 
nearest to the man of sorrows. His hard discipline 
was a type of Christ's baptism of suffering. Alike 
they were betrayed, one by his own son, the other 
by his own disciple. Alike they endured the most 
painful trials as the result of treachery ; one being 
driven out of the gates of Jerusalem by fear of the 
insurgents ; the other by the force of the people, 
he bearing his own cross. Alike they were for- 
saken ; one by his favourite tribe of Judah, which 
first chose him as their king, and of which he had 
a right to expect an unswerving loyalty ; the other 



156 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

by some of his most favoured disciples who were 
among the first to follow him, and the most forward 
to profess their undying attachment. Alike they 
found some of their best friends in need to be almost 
strangers. One supported by such men as Ittai the 
exile. Shobi of desolate Rabbah, and the old, blind 
Barzillai, who was an embodiment of the modern 
Christian commission ; the other pitied even by the 
compromising Pilate, embalmed by Xicodemus, and 
entombed by the kindness of Joseph of Arimathea. 
In both cases a period of accumulated agonies was 
succeeded by glimpses of the Divine favour, and 
the assurance of final deliverance ; each drank of 
the brook of heavenly refreshment by the way, un- 
til at length, God lifted up the head, and lightened 
the heart. But especially in one sorrow do they 
meet. David wept. Jesus wept. 

Though centuries apart, they stood on the same 
ground — Olivet. They overlooked the same city 
— Jerusalem. On the same road, (it would seem) 
they met. One going from the city with a sorrow- 
ful multitude ; the other coming in with a rejoicing 
crowd. One leaving a throne for a time because a 
rebellious son was usurping it ; the other hav- 
ing left his throne of glory to bring a rebellious 
province back to its allegiance unto God. And in 
many respects the cause of their tears was the 
same. Each bore a burden of sin. One pressed 
down by his own sins ; the other by the sins of us 
all. for he bare our iniquities. 



DAVID WEPT. 157 

No doubt there was an element of self-convic- 
tion in David's tears. For a long time — ever 
since he worded the fifty-first Psalm — he has felt 
the sting of his own sin. It has lain heavy upon 
him. It has taken away his health, and in an un- 
godly man it would have become remorse and de- 
spair. Tears have been his drink day and night. 
He has felt reproach, for he has caused the enemies 
of the Lord to blaspheme. He is a greatly changed 
man, going down to his grave mourning. His 
piety is not so buoyant, exultant, triumphant ; it 
is repressed, humble, suffering, patient. "Alas 
for him ! The bird which once rose to heights un- 
attained before by mortal wing filling the air with 
its joyful songs, now lies with maimed wing upon 
the ground, pouring forth its doleful cries unto 
God." 

Though his sins have been pardoned, yet some 
of their temporal results are pressing upon him. 
If not his sin now, because he has cast the entire 
awful burden on the Lord, it is found again in the 
sins of Absalom and his fellow conspirators, and 
these burden his soul. He takes them upon him- 
self, not because he can atone for them, but be- 
cause, in some degree, his conduct has caused 
them. The very wind from Jerusalem seems to 
bring them to Olivet and lay their weight upon him 
until he weeps. " He never wept thus when Saul 
hunted him, but a wounded conscience makes trou- 
ble lie heavy." With all caution, let us draw a 

14 



158 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

lesson from the mysterious resemblance between 
David and Christ, remembering, as we mark the 
agony which the sense of sin gave to David, that a 
far greater agony was impressed on the soul of 
Jesus by the sins of his people. Never had they 
been his by nature or by commission ; never had 
he caused them, but they were taken up by him 
that he might make for them a complete atonement. 
Under the imputed burden he weeps on Olivet. 

David weeps over one sinner, and he a son. It 
was an overwhelming grief at the desperate wick- 
edness of one whom he most dearly loved. "If it 
had been an enemy that had done this, then I could 
bear it : if one that hated me thus rose up against 
me, then I could hide myself from him. But it is 
thou, my son, my son, Absalom ! thou my expected 
peace, but now thy father's enemy : thou so ca- 
ressed in thy infancy, kissed after thy crime when 
life was forfeited, and indulged in thy princely dis- 
plays while thou wast stealing all Israel from me ; 
thou, who hast rebelled against me, plunged the 
kingdom into war and anarchy, and braved the 
wrath of thy God ! Absalom, my son, my son !" 

Did Christ o'er sinners weep ? 

And shall our cheeks he dry ? 
Let floods of penitential grief 

Burst forth from every eye. 
The Son of Cod in tears, 

Angels with wonder see ; 
Be thou astonished 0, my soul, 

He shed those tears for thee. 



DAVID WEPT. 159 

And as David thinks of the rising enmity against 
him, the war that may bring its horrors upon Jeru- 
salem, and the riot that shall prevail upon her 
streets, may not his tears be like those of our Lord 
when " He beheld the city and wept over it, saying, 
If thou hadst known, even thou, at least, in this 
thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace ! 
but now they are hid from thine eyes?" Even Je- 
rusalem does not know David to be its real king, 
nor the largeness of his heart in planning for its 
good ! And thinking of his rejection by the peo- 
ple, whom he would gather into the solid and en- 
during unity of a peaceful, prosperous nation, and 
into the one church of God, so that all Israel might 
dwell under the shadow of the Almighty, and un- 
der his wings be sheltered from every earthly storm, 
may not David have emotions like those expressed 
by our Lord when he said, " Jerusalem, Jerusa- 
lem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them 
that are sent unto thee ; how often would I have 
gathered thy children together, as a hen doth ga- 
ther her brood under her wings, and ye would not ! 
Behold your house is left unto you desolate : and 
verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until 
the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that 
cometh in the name of the Lord?" 

If from the " town of Mansoul" we have expelled 
the true King of the heart, and given the enemy 
an entrance and a welcome, let us think of Jesus 
weeping over it, and then give Him a triumphal 



160 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

entry, that our sin — not our Saviour — may be cru- 
cified in it, and that He may reign, the King of 
glory, ever blessing, and blessed for evermore. 
Then no tear of Christ shall have dropped, and no 
blood of His have been shed for us in vain. Shall 
these tears rise up against us ? We have seen the 
rain-drops fall, when sunshine mingled with the 
shower, and heaven was spanned by the bow in the 
cloud. All was then gladdening ; we had the smil- 
ing earth, the weeping skies, and had no dread of 
furious storms. But these drops that fell as glis- 
tening tears did not waste in the earth's long 
thirsty soil. They rose again. The very sun that 
shone when they were raining down in mercy, 
called them forth, and sent them floating in clouds 
for another mission. They gathered thicker, they 
drifted about, they hung threatening over us, they 
grew darker, blacker, and more fearful, and at last 
burst upon us like a storm of judgment, chilling 
where they struck, or freezing as they fell. And 
shall a Saviour's tears enter as an element in the 
destroying storm, that must fall upon sinners on 
the great day of the Lord, which hasteth greatly, 
as " a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, 
a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of dark- 
ness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick 
darkness," when "the earth shall quake, the hea- 
vens shall tremble ; the sun and the moon shall be 
dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining ; 
and the Lord shall utter his voice before his army, 



DAVID WEPT. 161 

for his camp is very great ; for he is strong that 
executeth his word; for the day of the Lord is 
great and very terrible ; and who can abide it ? 
The great day of his wrath is come, and who shall 
be able to stand?" Not those who remain un- 
moved by a Saviour's weeping tenderness, and un- 
redeemed by his atoning blood. Not those who re- 
fuse the pities of Christ on Olivet, and his pardon 
on Calvary. How oft would he have gathered 
them, and covered them from the approaching 
storm, but they would not ! How oft he visited 
them, but they knew not the day of their visitation ! 
How oft would he have dwelt in the house of their 
heart, but now it is left desolate ! How oft did he 
reveal unto them the things that belong to their 
peace, but they hid them from their eyes ! Jesus 
wept, but they had no tears of penitence. Jesus 
shed his blood, but they sought no remission of 
sins. And who shall stand ? They who yield to 
the infinite love that prompted those tears on Oli- 
vet. They who have an eternal refuge beneath the 
almighty wing through which no storm shall beat, 
and which no tempest of hail shall sweep away. 
They who have gone to the fountain and have 
washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb. 
These are they who shall " be accounted worthy to 
escape all these things that shall come to pass, and 
to stand before the Son of man." 

14 * 



162 THE REBEL PRINCE. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Friends and Foes. 

The more the bold, the bustling, and the bad 
Press to usurp the reins of power, the more 
Behooves it virtue, with indignant zeal 
To check their combination. 

The feather of Absalom is found on his associ- 
ates and on those who are ready to flock to his 
standard. We do not yet find a moral man named 
among his followers. Nor can we expect it. It 
requires a low degree of immorality to engage in 
such a conspiracy. The reports of Absalom's re- 
volt had spread far and wide, and evil men seize 
upon the moment to conspire against loyal masters 
or to curse the Lord's anointed. In them all we 
see the treacherous spirit of the prince. 

Perhaps David's tears were stayed by astonish- 
ment. Some one told him that " Ahithophel was 
among the conspirators with Absalom." This gave 
him more alarm than anything that had yet oc- 
curred, for, as Matthew Henry quaintly says, "One 
good head in such a design is worth a thousand 
good hands. Absalom was himself no politician, 



FRIENDS AND FOES. 163 

[statesman, rather, for he was demagogue enough] 
but he had got one entirely in his interest that was, 
and would be the more dangerous because he had 
been, all along, acquainted with David's counsels 
and affairs ; if therefore he could be baffled, Absa- 
lom was as good as routed, and the head of the 
conspiracy cut off." The king prayed earnestly 
that the counsel of Ahithophel might be turned into 
foolishness, alluding probably to his name — "bro- 
ther of foolishness." " He names the person 
whose counsel he prays against. God gives us 
leave, in prayer, to be humbly and reverently free 
with him, and to mention the particular care, fear, 
and grief that lies heavy upon us. He prays, not 
against Ahithophel's person, but against his coun- 
sel." 

On the top of the mount, up which he had wept, 
he worshipped God, and as if in answer to prayer, 
there came a man to him wise enough to defeat the 
advice of the prince's counsellor. Hushai the Ar- 
chite came to meet his king, " with his coat rent 
and earth upon his head," in token of the deepest 
grief. " Unto whom David said, If thou passest 
on with me, then thou shalt be a burden unto me, 
but if thou return unto the city, and say unto Ab- 
salom, I will be thy servant, king ; as I have 
been thy father's servant hitherto, so will I now 
also be thy servant ; then mayest thou for me de- 
feat the counsel of Ahithophel." The policy was 
shrewd and far-seeing, but the principle was not 



164 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

worthy of David. W-e see no way to defend it. 
It was proposing a deception, a strategy by fraud. 
The best that can be made of it is, that David 
thought the traitor deserved to be betrayed. He 
went on the principle of fighting Absalom with his 
own weapons. He would pay the prince in his 
own coin. If treachery was to be the current coin 
of Absalom's realm he should have plenty of it. 

And when David was a little past the top of the 
hill, he came in contact with one of the darker spe- 
cimens of humanity on whom the glare of Absa- 
lom's guilt seems to fall. Ziba was the very man 
to make a speculation out of the rebellion, at the 
expense of a loyal master. He was one of those 
men who have a sharp eye upon their own interest, 
and when any selfish gain appears, 

That moment a mere voice, a straw, a shadow, 
Are capable of turning them aside. 

To understand him, we must bring up the touch- 
ing story of his master Mephibosheth. He was 
five years old when his father Jonathan was slain. 
As David had been for, at least, six years a wan- 
derer in the wilderness, hunted by Saul, he knew 
nothing of this child of his dear friend. When the 
father and grandfather of Mephibosheth fell on 
Gilboa, the rumour went abroad, and all of the 
house of Saul were terrified lest they should be ex- 
terminated. The nurse in her fright ran with the 
child, fell, or let him fall, and thereby he was lamed 



FEIENDS AND FOES. 165 

for life. The helpless infant was carried beyond 
the Jordan, and brought up in the house of the 
generous Machir at Lo-debar in Gilead. There he 
remained in obscurity until David was well estab- 
lished on the throne, and was inquiring for any of 
the house of Saul that remained, that he might 
show him a kindness for Jonathan's sake. Ziba, 
a servant of that house, was heard of and sent for. 
He told that Jonathan had a son, lame in his feet. 
David sent for him, quelled his fears, made him a 
guest at his table, and restored to him the estate 
of Saul. Ziba was the manager of his lands. And 
still this lame prince was to be pitied, for neither 
mind nor body had fair play. Very likely he had 
been often outwitted by his rascally servant. 

When David was fleeing from the city, Mephi- 
bosheth soon heard of it, and prepared to follow. 
He was not lame in his loyalty, and wished to be 
with his king. But Ziba interfered, offering to 
convey the generous supplies to David. The ser- 
vant had a base plot to make himself greater than 
"his master. He offered the noble present of bread, 
raisins, and wine to the king, to open the way for 
an invented slander. He declared that his master 
had remained in Jerusalem, saying, " To-day shall 
the house of Israel restore me the kingdom of my 
father." The lie seemed plausible. David too 
hastily believed the deceiver, confiscated the pro- 
perty of Mephibosheth, and gave it to Ziba. Our 
wonder is that this swindler did not go at once to 



166 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

Absalom, and get the arch rebel to make the gift. 
But he was one who thought it best to have " two 
strings to his bow," and he must first have David's 
grant of the estate. It is not likely that Ziba ex- 
pected David to return to the throne, and we are 
quite ready to suspect that he now hastened to 
fawn for a smile and a gift of the lands from Ab- 
salom. 

Still farther on the king was hounded by one of 
the " angry spirits and turbulent mutter ers of 
stifled treason," whose valour consists in barking 
behind the hedge. Shimei came forth to curse and 
threat rebellion. He was of the house of Saul, and 
doubtless had experienced a great fall in the world, 
and this goes far to account for his insolent rage. 
He thought that David was for ever down, and Ab- 
salom securely exalted, and this goes still farther 
in the account. He was a specimen of the ungodly 
characters who hated David for his piety, and his 
devotion to the church ; brawled, whenever they 
dare, in reproach of the king ; exulted in his ap- 
parent overthrow, and pretended to see the hand 
of God in the event, and gloried now that . Absa- 
lom was to take the kingdom. How strangely 
blended were cursing and blessing in the same 
breath ! Cursing the king, and rejoicing that the 
Lord had set up Absalom ! It sometimes suits the 
basest men to profess an acknowledgment of God's 
authority in the government. This man seems to 
have the notion that Absalom would restore the 



FRIENDS AND FOES. 16-7 

house of Saul. Very probably the prince had pro- 
mised that he would grant large favours to all that 
fallen party. When the wicked should rule the 
vilest men would be exalted. 

This sneaking, cowardly hurling of curses and 
stones at the king and his servants roused the in- 
dignation of Abishai. Like a genuine son of Ze- 
ruiah, he felt an impulse to shed blood, and he 
begged the privilege of going over and taking off 
the venomous scoundrel's head. So dead a dog 
should not howl at the king, nor gratify Absalom 
with the boast of his valiant insult. But David 
took the reproach to his own heart, perhaps with a 
painful remembrance that because he was a "man 
of blood," the Lord would not permit him to rear 
the temple which he had proposed to build. And 
he would not allow short vengeance to be taken on 
the graceless rebel. Even this reproach was but a 
feather added to the burden already imposed upon 
him by his own son. Shimei was excited by Ab- 
salom's baser treason, and the Lord had permitted 
him to curse the king. " Behold my son seeketh 
my life, how much more may this Benjaminite do 
it ? Let him alone, and let him curse, for the Lord 
hath bidden him. It may be that the Lord will 
look on mine affliction — " my tearful eye as the 
original indicates — " and requite me good for his 
cursing this day." Not requite Shimei evil ! This 
he does not think of, in his submission to reproach. 
And the more heavy the burden the sooner will the 



168 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

Lord lift it. It was the cursing that cut deepest, 
and Shimei might follow on, like a cowardly re- 
viler, hurling stones and "dusting him with dust," 
as long as it would afford him any satisfaction. 

This was not probably the first, and certainly 
not the last man who threw dust into the air as a 
sign of disrespect, rage, or vindictive malice. 
The enemies of the Apostle Paul did the same 
thing when they cried out " Away with such a fel- 
low from the earth : for it is not fit that he should 
live." (Acts xxii. 22, 23.) Among the Orientals, 
those, who demand that any one shall be punished 
threw dust into the air to show that he should be 
put into his. grave. The Turks and Persians utter 
this curse, "Be covered with earth," or, "Earth 
be upon thy head." But without the dust, Shi- 
mei's crime was great enough. In the law it was 
written, " Thou shalt not revile the gods (the 
judges,) nor curse the ruler of thy people."* If 
he were the last of those who reviled the rulers of 
a people, humanity would have a better record. 
There are still those who abuse men in authority, 

* Exodus xxii. 28, which Fairbairn thus renders: "'Thou shalt 
not revile God, (not gods, as in our version,) nor curse the ruler of 
thy people,' — where the visible representative of God is coupled 
with God himself, and the offence committed against the one is held 
to be a dishonour to the other. It is precisely in the same way that 
the honouring of parents is placed among the things due to God 
himself." Paul speaks of all rulers from the sovereign down to the 
tax-gatherers as "the ministers of God/' who should be obeyed in 
all their -lawful offices. Resistance to them is a form of rebellion 
against God, who ordained all civil government. 



FRIENDS AND FOES. 169 

and keep before the public any story that can be 
made a scandal or a slander. He however had 
this in his favour. He cursed the king to his face. 
They speak far out his hearing, or write anony- 
mously in a corner. They have not the brazen im- 
pudence of the young men who mocked the prophet 
Elisha, but they have an equal degree of disrespect 
for judges, rulers, and the ministers of truth. Per- 
sonal abuse has become a considerable part of the 
capital in politics. The press is not slow in fur- 
nishing the required amount of stock-in-trade for 
every party campaign. Every candidate must be 
thoroughly abused, and the man who is elected to 
an important office is still further abused. The 
office itself falls into disrespect. The contagion 
spreads, until a people may have little regard for 
a the powers that be." From bitter reproaching 
there is but a step to clamorous discontent and 
turbulent rioting. Those who began with murmur- 
ing against Moses, ended their schemes in con- 
spiracy and revolt. Men first declaim against the 
ruler, then against the government, then wish for 
new laws, and then rebel against the old authority. 
One such a man can raise a party of followers, as 
Shimei drew to him a thousand Benjaminites, all 
eager to help Absalom into power. This abuse of 
the tongue and pen has been the curse of all na- 
tions. It has not been averted from us. And we 
need to know the moral principle 'of the law — 
" Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy peo- 
15 



170 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

pie." Our Lord boldly declared his mind against 
great evils, but he never denounced the wicked 
rulers of the land. The apostles owed few thanks 
to men in national power, yet, not a disrespectful 
word fell from their lips or pen. Peter and Jude 
portray the black character and the heavy doom 
of those who "despise dominion," and "speak 
evil of dignities." They were a dangerous class 
of men, with whom a Christian must not be identi- 
fied. It is a certain proof that men are far astray 
from sound morality when they revile their rulers, 
and make politics consist largely in slandering those 
whom they cannot defeat by fair arguments. The 
discussion of measures is the true ground for poli- 
tics ; not the defamation of men. By the first we 
may have good, honest politicians, — by the second 
only demagogues. It will be well with us when 
each can say, 

I am no party man ; 
I care for measures more than men, but think 
Some little may depend upon the men ; 
Something in fires depend upon the grate. 

Notice how the king who had wept in the morn- 
ing, slept at night, for these late events occurred 
during the first day's march. 

At some point beyond Bahurim — Josephus makes 
it the banks of the Jordan — there was a halt, 
" and the king, and all the people that were with 
him, came weary, and refreshed themselves there." 



FRIENDS AND FOES. 171 

The soldiers must have carried short rations with 
them, and the people scarcely enough for their 
"little ones." Ziba's two hundred loaves of 
bread, and an hundred bunches of raisins, and an 
hundred of summer fruits, and a bottle of wine, 
must have proved a timely present. He was a 
raven at heart, but even ravens may feed prophets, 
and he had furnished a table in the wilderness. 
No doubt David gave thanks for the kind provi- 
dence. We may well believe that prayer and 
praise were an important part in the refreshment. 
It seems that the party rested here until most of 
the night passed. May we not suppose that here 
is the place for that "Psalm of David, when he 
fled from Absalom his son?" If this be so, then 
what trust in God! No victory yet, no hopeful 
tidings from Jerusalem; still he has songs in the 
night, and afterwards can say of those fearful 
hours, " I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and 
he heard me out of his holy hill. I laid me down 
and slept; I awaked, for the Lord sustained me. 
I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people that 
have set themselves against me round about." 

The faithful can be truly fearless. Piety and 
courage are as cause and effect. Whom Heaven 
defends, earth cannot harm. While Absalom was 
carousing, or sitting proud in his godless council, 
David was asleep. Peter was in prison bound 
with two chains, placed between two soldiers, and 
the object of interest to earth, hell, and heaven; 



172 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

and while enemies were threatening, friends pray- 
ing, and an angel coming, Peter was sleeping ! 
And how, between the weeping and the sleeping, 
he must have cast his burden on the Lord ! 

Of all the thoughts of God that are 
Borne upward, unto minds afar, 

Along the Psalmist's music deep — 
Now tell me if that any is 
For gift or grace surpassing this — 

" He giveth his beloved sleep !" 

Note. — It has been supposed that the following Psalms were 
composed by David during the rebellion of Absalom, or shortly 
after it, and certainly the events of this period and these Psalms 
throw light upon each other : Ps. iii.,,iv., v., xl., xlii., xliii., xliv., lv. 
lxii., lxx., lxxi., cxliii., cxliv. 

If this supposition be admitted, (and with great caution too,) we 
see David a greater literary man in camp than Xenophon or Julius 
Caesar, for they penned the mere journal of events; but he drew 
nobler thoughts from heaven, because he held communion with 
God. 



DAVID'S FRIEND, THE ORATOR. 173 



CHAPTER XIV. 

David's Friend, the Orator. 

His tongue 
Dropped manna, and could make the worse appear 
The better reason, to perplex and dash 
Maturest counsels. 

It is often said that Paris is France. In the 
same sense Jerusalem was Judea. Thither the 
tribes went up, and there the power of the govern- 
ment was concentrated. The importance of spee- 
dily seizing the capital was manifest to Absalom, 
especially when the wise Ahithophel was with him 
to help him appreciate it. If the rebel prince 
made Hebron his head-quarters, and seat of power, 
he would appear to be simply at the head of a re- 
volt. But if he established himself at Jerusalem, he 
would appear to be at the head of the government. 
The capital being in his hands, he would be recog- 
nized by the nation and all its neighbours, as the 
reigning king. He would have the throne, the 
tabernacle, the law, and everything belonging to 
the state and the church in his possession. 

Absalom has entered the capital; found it de- 
15 * 



174 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

serted by his father, and is receiving the congratu- 
lations and allegiance of his friends. He is sur- 
prised that so good a man, and so fast a friend to 
David as Hushai the Archite should greet him, 
saying, " God save the king !" Perhaps he means 
the old king, and he is asked, " Is this thy kind- 
ness to thy friend ? Why wentest thou not with 
thy friend?"* At first Hushai seems about to 
reply with a mental reservation, having on his lips 
an allegiance to Absalom, but in his mind an al- 
legiance to David. Some readers would like to 
find it so, but this would not mend the matter. 
It would be only doubling the deception. Husjiai's 
words grow stronger as he proceeds — perhaps 
stronger than he first meant to express. Being 
driven into a corner, he makes an unreserved 
avowal of subjection to the usurper. Absalom is 
deceived by what is often called shrewd policy, 
skilful management of human nature, expediency, 
and ingenuity. It was making the end justify 
the means, and doing evil that good might come. 
Our sympathies go with Hushai, but conscience 
must not sanction all his conduct. Absalom is 
more than satisfied, for if so good a man, as 

* We could hardly expect Absalom to say, " my father." There 
was a reason for saying "thy friend." It would test Hushai's sin- 
cerity by reminding him of his former intimacy with David. There 
was a time when "Ahithophel was the king's counsellor, and 
Hushai the Archite was the King's companion." If the one bad 
been nearest David's ear, the other was nearest his heart. The 
questions asked were pungent and prying. 



david's friend, the orator. 175 

" David's friend," was joining the infidel standard, 
he might hope for all the foes to David's piety, 
and all the haters of the Lord. And now "Da- 
vid's friend" has gained a right to have a voice in 
all the deliberations of the burdened hour. 

The night is coming. If the evening sacrifices 
are being offered, Absalom does not attend them. 
Usurpers have sometimes paid their first devotions 
at the altar, thanking God for the success of their 
treason, but not so Absalom. He is, doubtless, in 
the "house of cedar," anxious and impatient. His 
father is not his prisoner, nor his victim. He 
must, in some way, make an end of David. Every- 
thing depends on the hour. He calls a council — 
" the first cabinet council to which history admits 
us." We enter it. It is awfully ungodly, and the 
coolness in proposing abominable wickedness, shows 
a close familiarity with sin. Its genius is Ahitho- 
phel, and he proposes a course so revolting that we 
wonder, more than ever, that he should have been 
the counsellor of David. He is the grandfather of 
Bath-sheba, (compare 2 Sam. xi. 3; xxiii. 34,) 
and it has been suggested that he intends to be re- 
venged on David for the injury once done to her, 
by putting Absalom upon a similar course of con- 
duct. The king's house must be ravaged. The 
deed will enrage the father beyond all prospect of 
reconciliation. It will separate the father and the 
son for ever, for Absalom will be held in utter ab- 
horrence. It will divide the people into two par- 



176 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

ties, and every man must take a side in the con- 
test. None can remain neutral ; none be conser- 
vative ; very few will dare adhere to David, and 
the party of Absalom will grow strong. The coun- 
sellor hopes much from the ungodliness of the peo- 
ple. The usurper hung not upon the advice, nor 
had a fear lest all Israel should turn from him in 
utter disgust and execration. He followed it, and 
his flatterers approved the abhorrent crime, as a 
prelude to his kingly administration. 

The next piece of Ahithophel's counsel is more 
worthy of the man who had stood high in David's 
estimation as a strategist. He advises just what a 
sagacious warrior, intent upon making a short war, 
would regard the most prudent. As the one main 
object is to destroy David's power, Ahithophel sees 
the surest and shortest way to do it. Out of the 
multitudes who had flocked to Absalom, let him 
have twelve thousand of the best, give him the 
command, and while the prince is rioting, he will 
this very night make swift pursuit, come upon the 
king while he is weary and weak-handed ; and in 
his fright he cannot resist ; the people will flee, and 
only David will be smitten. Then -the people can 
be persuaded to submit to the new king in peace. 

This counsel pleased Absalom well, and all the 
elders of Israel. We do not wonder. From their 
point of view the advantages of the plan were many 
and striking. It was prompt, brought the war into 
a small compass, seemed certain of success, and 



DAVID'S FRIEND, THE ORATOR. 177 

would avoid a general and unpopular slaughter. 
It would not put Absalom's precious life in peril, 
and would force decision upon all who were yet in- 
clined to loyalty. Our only wonder is that the 
council were willing to listen to any other proposal, 
or reject this plan after hearing it. But God was 
overruling and restraining the wrath of man. "He 
taketh the wise in their own craftiness." The 
scale is to be turned by the power of words. 

It seems that Hushai had not heard the brief 
speech of Ahithophel. Perhaps he was so shocked 
by the first advice of this renegade statesman, that 
he 'shrank back from the council. Absalom had 
him called, told him the plan, and probably expect- 
ing nothing but a strong second to it, asked his ad- 
vice. It was a moment of intense anxiety to " Da- 
vid's friend." Never, perhaps, in the history of 
eloquence, was an orator so beset with difficulties 
and dangers. Violent and reckless men are all 
around him. The chief counsellor can easily sus- 
pect and ferret out a spy. A word, a syllable, a 
breath, a gesture, a glance, may betray him. To 
oppose one who has been in Israel as " the oracle 
of God," is almost folly. To speak a word for Da- 
vid is perilous ; he may bring ruin upon his mas- 
ter's cause, and forfeit his own life. 

But something must be done. Now or never 
must he be of service to his king. David can be 
captured without a doubt. He saw him " weary 
and weak-handed," in tears and alarm, only a few 



178 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

hours ago, with a weeping train of followers who 
would be helpless in a night-attack. Before the 
morrow's sun the king and the kingdom may perish 
together. He however is blessed with penetration 
and wit equally with the old counsellor. His ob- 
ject is to gain time enough for David to cross the 
Jordan. And now he sets earnestly, yet delibe- 
rately about it. He must not sharply oppose Ahi- 
thophel, must not excite a discussion, must not al- 
low the plan to be brought up again, but must drive 
it out of the minds of his hearers by impressive 
words. He must excite the imagination of his 
hearers. He must take Ahithophel by a sort of 
mental generalship, equal to the oracle's military 
skill. And he does it. He rouses memories of 
David's courage, guardedness, and victory. He 
reminds them that David is not the man to be 
caught asleep, nor to be negligent of strategy. He 
will be hidden just where nobody expects him, and 
of all times to be on his track, the night is the 
worst. The flight may be on the wrong side for 
Absalom, if his men venture to the door of the lion's 
den. And then, appealing to Absalom's excessive 
vanity, he paints the glory of his going forth him- 
self as the commanding general, with all Israel in 
battle array. Delay will make the prince glorious, 
and his grandeur will carry the whole nation with 
him by enthusiasm. 

" And Hushai said, The counsel that Ahithophel 
has given is not good at this time (however good in 



DAVID'S FRIEND, THE ORATOR. 179 

general.) For thou knowest thy father and his men, 
that they be, said Hushai, mighty men, and they be 
(even now) chafed in their minds as a bear robbed 
of her whelps in the field : and thy father is a man 
of war, and will not lodge with the people (exposed 
and unguarded). Behold, he is hid now in some 
pit, or in some other place (well defended) ; and it 
will come to pass, when some of them (who are 
proposed to be sent after him this night) be over- 
thrown at the first, that (a panic will ensue, and) 
whosoever heareth it will say, There is a slaughter 
among the people that follow Absalom. And (then) 
he also that is valiant, whose heart is as the heart 
of a lion, shall utterly melt : for all Israel knoweth 
that thy father is a mighty man, and they which be 
with him are valiant men. (They are not the men 
to flee and let David be captured.) Therefore I 
counsel, that all Israel be generally gathered unto 
thee, from Dan even to Beer-sheba,, as the sand that 
is by the sea for multitude ; and that thou go to 
battle in thine own person, (getting to thyself all 
the glory of a great campaign and victory.) So 
shall we come upon him in some place where he 
shall be found, and we will light upon him as the 
dew falleth on the ground : and of him and of all 
the men that are with him there shall not be left 
so much as one. Moreover if he be gotten into a 
city, then shall all Israel bring ropes to that city, 
and we will draw it into the river, until there be 
not one small stone found there." 



180 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

The effect of this short speech was overpowering ; 
the triumph complete. Hushai's counsel was at 
once declared the wiser, because it seemed that the 
carrying out of his proposed plan would thoroughly 
exterminate David and his party, and increase the 
royal dignity of Absalom by the splendours of a 
military achievement. One secret of the orator's 
success was, that Satan had outwitted himself in 
preparing Absalom for the work of. rebellion, and 
in instilling into him an unbounded self-importance. 
His overweening vanity had led him astray, and 
now, in a twinkling, he is so flattered with the hope 
of glory that he gives up the very policy which ap- 
peared most sure of success. But the great reason 
was, that God was calmly swaying the movements 
of men and devils, and defeating the schemes of 
His enemies. While he could not approve the de- 
ception of Hushai, he made use of it for good. 
Hence the great secret of the orator's success was 
that " the Lord had appointed to defeat the good 
(or wise) counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that 
the Lord might bring evil upon Absalom." He 
made this eloquent speech the pivot on which 
turned the destiny of the usurper, and the restora- 
tion of the Lord's anointed. He that sat in the 
heavens laughed, and held the rebels in derision, 
for he would again set his king upon the holy hill 
of Zion. 

Ahithophel is dumb with astonishment at the 
tflindness of the prince and the cabinet. They act 



david's friend, the orator. 181 

like fools, in rejecting his proposals. Their cause 
is lost, by giving David one night more time, and 
he will have nothing to do with such a dallying 
council. They are not worthy of such an oracle 
as he is, and he will make them know the want of 
him. Failure must come, and he will not remain 
to bear the disgrace of defeat, nor endure death 
for treason. Mortally offended, he rides home, 
instead of riding forth to capture David. One 
would think that he would wait to see the result, 
and at least have the satisfaction of saying, "I 
knew it — I told you so ! If I could have had my 
way, all this would never have occurred!" But 
he cannot endure the slur cast upon his wisdom 
and his generalship. Not the approaching ruin of 
the cause, so much as the personal affront to him- 
self, preys upon his mind. He resolves to take 
his own life. Mad enough to hang himself, he is 
yet wise enough to set his house in order before 
he does it. He may not be the first man who 
hanged himself, but "he bears the unenviable dis- 
tinction of being the first whose hanging himself is 
recorded." Like Judas, he went to "his own 
place." 

" What a contrast to David in his power of 
bearing disgrace ! Men of the richest natural 
gifts have often proved wofully deficient in self- 
control: the list of suicides contains the names of 
some of the most gifted of men. Only special 

grace can impart the power to stand erect under 
16 



182 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

the bewildering humiliations and reverses of the 
world. How vain is it for a man to be wise, if he 
be not wise in Grod !" The voice of the gospel to 
every one in troubles which tempt to desperation, 
is, " Do thyself no harm. Believe on the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." 

For some reason Hushai does not feel perfectly 
sure that his counsel will be followed. How trust 
the traitors ? When their imaginations cool they 
may revert to the measure first proposed, and dash 
forth to waylay the king. At best only a breath- 
ing-time is secured to David. The danger is not 
removed ; the crisis is simply delayed. He there- 
fore prudently informs the priests, Zadok and 
Abiathar, of the advice given on both sides. They 
are prepared for the emergency. Each has a son 
hiding outside of the city, at En-rogel, (supposed 
by some to be the later "Fountain of Siloam.") A 
maid-servant bears to them the message, and they 
convey it to David, saying, " Lodge not this night 
in the plains of the wilderness, but speedily pass 
over (the Jordan ;) lest the king be swallowed up, 
and all the people that are with him." 

Even the lads of the neighbourhood were affected 
with a mania for Absalom, the prince with the 
long hair, the gay horses, and the gilded chariots. 
One of them saw the sons of the priests, suspected 
their mission to the king, and with boyish omcious- 
ness hasted to Absalom, as glad to have something 
to tell, as he was to hear it. He ordered his ser- 



THE ORATOR. 183 

vants to intercept the despatches. The wonder is 
that he did not fall upon the priests, but God pro- 
tected them. Bahurim had some good people in 
it, who were not drawn away into the errors of 
Shimei, and an excellent well for a hiding-place. 
The young messengers went down into the well, 
and the good woman, more loyal than candid, 
cunningly spread a covering over the well, and put 
ground corn upon it, as if she had been airing it, 
and was carelessly leaving it out rather late in the 
evening. The pursuers came, inquired for Ahimaaz 
and Jonathan, and thinking the woman to be an 
artless creature, believed her when she said " they 
be gone over the brook of water." They searched 
the premises, and, supposing that if she had not 
sense enough to take care of her corn, she had not 
wit enough to hide the messengers, they perhaps 
jestingly told her that the dew would not help it 
any, and returned to the city. The woman, in the 
spirit of the honoured Rahab, watched her time, un- 
sealed the well, and bade the trusty messengers 
good-speed. Her false statement cannot be justi- 
fied, but we must acknowledge the important part 
she performed in securing the safety of David. 
She was one of the nameless ones, still loyal to her 
rightful king. 

Who knows but that the king was sleeping when 
the message was brought into his camp ? He un- 
derstood it, arose, roused the people, and they 
passed over the river. "By the morning light 



184 . THE BEBEL PBINCE. 

there lacked not one of them that was not gone 
over Jordan." The "little ones" whom the noble 
captain, Ittai, had been so careful of at the Kedron, 
were doubtless carried over in the same kind way. 
None were lost in crossing or fording the river. 
Here some draw a parallel between David and 
Christ who said in a difficult day, "Of all that 
thou hast given me, have I lost none." We have 
often reason to notice David's tender care for all 
who trusted him for safety in their distresses. 



THE king's head-quarters. 185 



CHAPTER XV. 

Tlie King's Head- Quarters. 

That man 
May safely venture to go on his way 
That is so guided that he cannot stray. 

The Lord had stirred up the eagle's nest, but 
was bearing David on eagles' wings to himself and 
to a place which he had made sacred by his pre- 
sence. While every movement of the rebel prince 
is a blunder, every step that the king takes is one 
of wisdom. He is guided by. an unseen hand to 
Mahanaim. Near it Jacob had wrestled with the 
angel, and called the place Peniel, because he had 
there seen God face to face, and his life had been 
preserved. We may believe that David's prayers 
are worthy of the place, and when needing wis- 
dom, it is liberally given him of God. It is wise 
for him to make Mahanaim his head-quarters. As 
a "base of military operations," none could be 
better. The forty miles between it and Jerusalem 
could not be made in a night's march by the rebel 
army. Its defences and its nearness to supplies 
had commended it to Ishbosheth and Abner, when 
16* 



186 THE KEBBL PRINCE. 

they attempted to maintain the crown in the house 
of Saul. It is wise to tempt Absalom across the 
Jordan, and draw the battle toward a wood where 
the arms of giant oaks are reaching forth to seize 
the chief conspirator. Long ago God placed the 
oak there to fulfil his purposes of justice. It is 
wise to be in a pastoral region, where the prime 
articles of food are abundant, and where brave and 
hardy men, attached to their family- chiefs, and 
loyal to their king, will be ready to come at the 
call of their leaders, and add their strength to the 
royal army. We know not the men thus fur- 
nished, but the generosity of three of these chief- 
tains is touchingly recorded. 

We have all heard of the men who were ordered 
to remain at Jericho, until their beards were grown. 
They were not striplings, whose pretensions to man- 
liness were in advance of their years, but dignified 
ambassadors, men of rank and station, who had 
been grossly insulted by Hanun the son of Nahash. 
This Nahash, cruel enough usually, had been kind 
to David, who was the last man to forget a favour. 
Hanun lost his father some years after, and be- 
came a pompous king in a petty kingdom. David, 
remembering the old kindness, sent certain noble- 
men to express his sympathies to the new king. 
But Hanun treated them as spies, cut off the skirts 
of their robes, and shaved off half their beards — a 
thing regarded as worse than a complete shaving. 
King David knew how ridiculous they would ap- 



THE king's head-quarters. 187 

pear in this wretched plight, and in tender regard 
for their feelings, sent them word to tarry at Jeri- 
cho until their beards should grow respectably long 
for a public appearance. War followed, and 
Hanun had reason to come to that sort of repent- 
ance which men feel when they are forced to recall 
their sins because they must reap the consequences. 
It could hardly be expected that any relative of 
Hanun would be kind to David. Yet his own bro- 
ther Shobi comes to the head-quarters, loaded with 
supplies for the army. 

One would scarcely suppose that the lame boy, 
Mephibosheth, had anything good to say of David 
when he was growing up in the house of Machir of 
Lo-debar. The guardian, in pitying the lame 
child, might have hated him whom Saul held as an 
enemy. Yet Machir comes of his own accord, with 
gifts prompted by the noblest patriotism. And 
good old Barzillai — we expect him to come, for he 
is rich in loyalty, and loyal with his wealth. Sani- 
tary and Christian commissions are of no modern 
date, for these leading men of Gilead "brought 
beds, and. basins, and earthen vessels, and wheat, 
and barley, and flour, and parched corn, and beans, 
and lentiles, and parched pulse, and honey — " one 
almost wishes he had been there as the list length- 
ens — " and butter, and sheep, and cheese of kine, 
for David and for the people that were with him, 
to eat ; for they said, The people is hungry, and 
weary, and thirsty in the wilderness." The bur- 



188 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

den of supplying an army with rations is a very 
serious one, and David not only finds it lifted, but 
his heart is lightened, for " A generous soul is sun- 
shine to the mind." He has been guided into this 
region of rich farms and loyal hearts by the good 
hand of God. 

It is also wise in David, while hoping for the 
best to prepare for the worst. War must come ; 
terrible war of the son against the father, and bro- 
ther against brother. It is a tremendous necessity. 
The s rebellion is not a thing of words, and he can- 
not by mere words allay it. It is an armed rebel- 
lion, and the only possible resort for him is to set 
an armed force against it. The only way to a 
good peace is through a good war. And he has 
wisdom for the emergency. According to the ra- 
ther doubtful testimony of Josephus, the entire 
number does not, however, exceed four thousand 
men. The crafty general Joab, has come, and in 
a trying time he is an host in himself. Abishai, 
did not turn back offended, when David said to him, 
at his proposal to take the head off Shimei, "What 
have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah !" He 
is present, cool enough to command. 

With his remarkable talent for military arrange- 
ment, David puts his forces into three brigades, 
with an eminent general over each. He proposes 
to head the entire force, and share in the perils of 
the fight. " I will surely go forth with you my- 
self also." The smaller his army, the more need 



THE king's head-quarters. 189 

of him whose aged hand can still hold firm the 
sword. "But the people answered, Thou shalt 
not go forth ; for if we flee away they will not care 
for us ; neither if half of us die, will they care for 
us ; but now thou art worth ten thousand of us ; 
therefore, now it is better that thou succour us out 
of (or from) the city." The voice of the people 
was, in this instance, the voice of God, and he said, 
"What seemeth you best, I will do." 

David had all this wisdom, no doubt, in answer 
to prayer. We should notice it, because there 
lurks in the minds of some persons, an idea that 
if good sense be not naturally possessed, it is use- 
less to pray for it. Very certain is it that sound 
discretion is one of the blessings which we are in- 
vited to ask. " If any man lack wisdom let him 
ask of God." 

When the hour came for the battle, " the king 
stood by the gate-side (of Mahanaim) and all the 
people came out by hundreds and by thousands." 
Every company, regiment, and brigade, was mar- 
shalled in order, and we leave the king reviewing 
his army, to trace the march of the young man 
Absalom. 



190 THE REBEL PRINCE. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

The Rebels Marching. 

A sceptre snatched with an unruly hand, 
Must be as boist'rously maintained as gained. 

The wisest thing for Absalom would have been 
to remain in Jerusalem, fortify it, raise an army, 
and put himself on the defensive ; then declare 
that he was not seeking war, but only asking to be 
let alone. If the king attacked him he could 
charge on him the blame of the first blow, and with 
pretended horror cry out against the inhumanity 
of a father in making war upon a son. How plau- 
sible the assertion that his father was "A man of 
blood," and he a man of peace ! 

The character, the designs and the conduct of 
Absalom are by no means worthy of being brought 
beside those of William III. when he assumed the 
right to take the throne of England, peaceably if 
he could, by war if he must. But Absalom's folly 
may be illustrated by "William's policy. James 
had fled from the throne in cowardice. William 
did not make war against him, pursuing him to the 



THE REBELS MARCHING. 191 

death. He let him wander where he chose in 
peace. The people began to appreciate the leni- 
ency, and acknowledge the rights of the new king. 
James had no other way but to begin the war, at- 
tack the coasts, and invade the kingdom. When 
he made the attempt, the people generally regarded 
him as the aggressor, and resisted, or drove him 
from the soil. They repelled his son Prince Charles, 
in the same spirit. The crown was settled upon 
the house of Orange, and the Stuarts were forever 
excluded from the throne. A similar policy with 
Absalom, might have produced similar results. But 
God had not left his theocracy thus to be over- 
turned. The usurper was allowed to act unwisely, 
and indulge the pretensions of a rebel and the cru- 
elties of a son, for thus he would work his own de- 
feat and ruin. 

In his impatience to make the throne secure, he 
was not content to drive the king into the remotest 
corner of the realm, but he must chase him out of 
the world. There might still be magic in the name 
of David, and hearts longing for his restoration. 
A rebel cannot have strong faith in other rebels, 
nor even in himself. Those to-day most enthu- 
siastic for the prince, may wish to-morrow to return 
to their former allegiance. Blindness, in part, 
hath happened to Israel, because he has hood- 
winked and befooled the people. Their eyes may 
soon be opened, and then he must become their de- 
testation. They will see his intrigues, read his 



192 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

black heart through and through, despise the trai- 
tor, shake off his yoke of tyranny and call back 
the rightful king to the throne. There must be no 
king to call back, and therefore he makes ready for 
the war against the father. 

How nearly his army came to the vast one " as 
the sand that is by the sea for multitude," pre- 
sented to his imagination by "David's friend," we 
cannot tell. There must have been . over twenty 
thousand; Josephus says, "many ten thousands." 
If on the first evening the rebels entered the capi- 
tal, the numbers were so great that Ahithophel could 
" choose out twelve thousand men," the rapid gath- 
ering of forces for three or four days would swell 
them to a vast array. The difficulty of raising a 
large army in a short time may not have been so 
great as we imagine. Saul, at a time when he was 
unpopular, summoned an army for the relief of Ja- 
besh-Gilead, and in four or five days had three 
hundred and thirty thousand men of war. It was 
at a period when there were no professional sol- 
diers, no organized troops of militia. Every man 
was, however, familiar with the use of weapons, 
from his youth, and ready at a moment's call to 
leave the flock or field, and march against the 
enemy. Every man took his "rations" with him 
from home, and lessened the public burden of fur- 
nishing supplies. If his knapsack was exhausted, 
he lived on love for his country until something 
could be provided. The call for troops was con- 



THE REBELS MARCHING. 193 

veyed by swift runners, or telegraphed by signal- 
fires kindled one after another on the mountains. 
Such a call may have gone forth from Hebron when 
Absalom took possession of it, and if so, the men 
of the stolen hearts needed but a short time to re- 
port themselves in Jerusalem. It was like the old 
Scottish chiefs summoning their clans when war 
was suddenly opening to them an inviting field. 

So extended was the rebellion, that it is not re- 
presented as a local or party uprising, but as a 
great national revolt. Engaged in it were " all 
the people, the men of Israel," "all the elders of 
Israel." And the term Israel did not yet mean 
only the ten tribes, but the whole nation. The 
small numbers with David, or secretly loyal at 
their homes, formed but an exception to the gene- 
ral revolt. Inflated now with vanity, proud of his 
success, and drunk with ambition for the glory of 
leading such an army to victory, Absalom assumed 
the chief command, forgetting that he who has 
never served knows not how to govern. He led 
his forces out of the city, and very likely the cow- 
ardly Shimei hailed him with a blessing as he 
passed. Crossing the Jordan, he pitched in the 
land of Gilead. 

" And Absalom made Amasa captain of the host 
instead of Joab." He had, perhaps, expected Joab 
to join in the rebellion, and held for him this ap- 
pointment. We may find something to account, in 
part, for the presence of Amasa among the rebels, 
17 



194 THE REBEL PRINCE, 

although he was a nephew of king David, and 
Joab's cousin. David had a sister Abigail, who 
married Jether an Ishmaelite (1 Chron. ii. 17), or 
after changing his nationality and, perhaps, his re- 
ligion, he was called Ithra an Israelite (2 Sam. 
xvii. 25.) This man seems not to have stood very 
high in the king's estimation. Amasa, the son, 
was therefore neglected, while his cousins, the sons 
of Zeruiah, were promoted <-o great honour and in- 
fluence. No doubt he thought himself as good as 
any nephew of the king, and the slight was hard to 
bear. . If, therefore, David's hand had been against 
him, barring the way to preferment, his own Ish- 
maelite hand should now be against David. An 
office-seeker has not much conscience to feel the 
sin of rebellion. 

Ambition's eyes 
Look often higher than their merits rise. 

While the battle is drawing nigh, and the scouts 
are exploring the country, we may notice some of 
its features. In the tribe of Gad is a large forest 
called the "wood of Ephraim." How it came to 
bear the name of a tribe on the other side of the 
river is not known. Some think, because of the 
slaughter of the Ephraimites on this spot, in the 
time of Jephthah, (Judges xii. 4-6,) when blood 
enough was shed to make it worthy of the title. 
May it not have been so called because certain 
" fugitives from Ephraim" had settled there, and 
fixed their name upon it, to remain long after they 



THE REBELS MAKCHING. 195 

suffered for the slight difference between " Shibbo- 
leth" and " Sibboleth" ? It had been a battle- 
ground, where armies fought, not about words, but 
for great principles, and was to be again, when the 
test-words should be loyalty and rebellion. Not 
far distant, Og the giant once flourished, and may 
have bowed to save his towering head from the 
hanging boughs of the oaks of Bashan. As an oak 
is to perform a conspicuous part in bringing about 
the end of Absalom and his rebellion, we may no- 
tice it here. Tradition does not assume to point 
out the exact tree, but modern critics, who have a 
fondness for making changes in our English Bible, 
make war upon the word oak, and insist that it 
should be terebinth. It matters little to us which 
it was, except for the sake of keeping people from 
going so far in their uncertainties, that they will 
think it no matter whether Absalom was caught at 
all by the boughs of a tree. In > the " Land and 
the Book," the traveller and author is very zealous 
for the oak, although it is alah instead of allon in 
the original. He says, " that battle-field was on 
the mountains east of the Jordan, always celebrated 
for great oaks — not for terebinths. The name 
' wood of Ephraim' signifies a wild, rocky region, 
overgrown with trees, mostly oak, never the tere- 
binth. There is no such thing in this country as a 
terebinth-wood. Yet this alah, which caught Ab- 
salom, formed part of the wood of Ephraim. It 
was an oak, I firmly believe. There are thousands 



196 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

of such trees still in the same country, admirably 
suited to catch long-haired rebels, but no terebinths. 
Indeed this latter does not meet the requirements 
of the catastrophe at all. I see it asserted by the 
advocates of this translation that the oak is not a 
common nor a very striking tree in this coun- 
try, implying that the terebinth is. A greater 
mistake could scarcely be made. As to strength, 
it is simply ridiculous to compare the terebinth 
with the oak, and the same in regard to size. Still 
more surprising are the statements about the ex- 
tent of oak forests in this land. Why there are more 
mighty oaks here in this immediate vicinity than 
there are terebinths in all Syria and Palestine to- 
gether." In this skirmish of words the oak is de- 
fended with no little of the same loyalty to the 
good old English version, that we feel in establish- 
ing the firm allegiance of Joab to his king. And 
this brave old general is now about to take his po- 
sition in or near the "wood of Ephraim," to wait 
for the rebel army to advance and open the battle. 
A good position is half the victory. 



DEAL GENTLY. 197 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Deal Gently, 

Dost thou deem 
It such an easy task from the fond heart 
To root affection out ? 

The dreaded day has come at last. And the 
battle must be fought. The hour for the march to 
the forest can no longer be delayed, lest the rebel 
forces bring their engines and their ropes, and at- 
tempt such a siege as " David's friend" had per- 
suaded Absalom would be glorious, and all the hor- 
rors of carnage be carried into the streets and 
homes of the city. Well may the excited inhabi- 
tants of Mahanaim thank David that he does not 
defend himself behind its walls. The moment has 
come when the captains wait for their orders, and 
the father must give them, though every word be 
aimed at his son. Agitated he stands by the gate 
side, and as the troops file by almost in silence, 
they hear him say to each of his three generals, 
"Deal gently, for my sake, with the young man, 
even with Absalom." 

No fears for the result, no hopelessness of vic- 
17 * 



198 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

tory, no thought of how the young man would deal 
with him should he get him in his power, not a 
doubt but the prince will be overcome, and pro- 
bably captured, no trembling for the ark of God 
sent back to risk the desecration of the ungodly ; 
but only the thought of his son's exposure to injury 
and death, and his own pangs of heart should he 
be slain. And as the thirsty soldiers in a dreary 
wilderness are permitted to linger a moment and 
drink of the brook by the way, so let us again be 
refreshed by the stream of paternal love so often 
met with in our progress through David's history. 

We are altogether wrong in our theology, our 
faith, and our practical life, if we suppose that 
justice and mercy are opposing attributes. One 
does not exclude the other. One takes the form 
of law, the other clothes itself in love. One gives 
us a hatred of sin, the other imparts a love for the 
sinner. One shows us that punishment is right, 
the other prompts us to redeem the guilty from 
punishment. Justice forbids that revenge which 
"looks from the fault to the individual," and says 
"torture and kill him." It is in perfect unity 
with that love which "looks from the fault to the 
individual, and says, pity and save him." Sin is 
God's abhorrence, and whenever it comes within 
the reach of human law, it should be punished with 
just severity. And when it grows into crimes of 
murder and treason, like those of Absalom, it de- 
serves death. It must be put away from society. 



DEAL GENTLY. 199 

and " to put it away from us, we must slay him 
who. is fatally infected, and whose infection will 
spread ; but not towards him are we necessitated 
to entertain any feeling but love ; the whole fer- 
vour of our hate is against that snake whose deadly 
venom has utterly tainted his blood." 

" And have not men in all ages borne witness to 
an instinctive feeling of this distinction ? Bad as 
tfie world is, there perhaps was never a scaffold 
erected, and a man put to death upon it, for whom, 
whatever his crime, certain eyes in the crowd were 
not filled with the dew of pity. * * * * They wit- 
nessed to the fact that it is a stern work for man 
to be the executioner of man. It is the mark of 
the evil one perceived on a fellow-creature that is 
hated, not that creature himself. Would to God ! 
men say from their inmost hearts, we could part 
this evil from you ; but we cannot, and we must 
expel it from the midst of us ; you must go with it. 
The tainted spot must be cut out ; but while the 
knife is being whetted, the tear is being shed." 
(Baynes Christian Life.) 

King David now stands before us in this very at- 
titude. We approve, with all justice, his taking up 
arms against Absalom. It may be death to his son, 
but the son deserves it. Should the king go forth 
against him, and slay him, we could not refuse to 
call it just. David loves law, order, government, 
and the nation's peaceful security, and he there- 
fore must punish rebellion. He must wipe out this 



200 THE KEBEL PRINCE. 

enormous wickedness, and he knows that Joab will 
make clear work of it, if it be possible. He does 
not restrain him from going to the battle. But 
lest the cold-browed general should temper justice 
with revenge rather than mercy, he attempts to 
check his strong passion by saying, "Deal gently." 
It is the rebellion that he hates, and not the rebel. 
Pity for Absalom is consistent with an intense 
hatred of Absalom's crime, and a strong determi^ 
nation to crush it in its rising and threatening 
power. The sturdiest warrior may weep for his 
foes, and yet fight them to the death. A tear in 
Joab's eye would commend him to us as all the no- 
bler in his vigorous justice. 

Nor is king David in any new position. Often 
has he stood with justice and mercy united in his 
soul. We may see how he looked — and how the 
God of David looked— upon a righteous govern- 
ment, upon its enemies, and upon war as a neces- 
sary means of promoting a government in love, and 
punishing its foes in severe justice. Christian men 
of all times have had the serious questions pertain- 
ing to war coming up often before them. They 
have been forced to examine them in the light of 
the Bible. It may be thus until the millennial day 
shall dawn. We can never be wiser than the word 
of God. 

Several of the next paragraphs are taken from 
the author's sermon entitled, " Thanksgiving for 
victory," published in 1863. 



DEAL GENTLY. 201 

The Bible does not glory in war. The most 
splendid campaigns of Joshua and David are 
sketched in the fewest words — often a single verse 
is crowded with facts that would have made long 
chapters in Spartan or in Latin history. The 
very silence about these daring expeditions and 
dazzling victories is a small proof of the inspiration 
of the Bible. Human nature could not have re- 
sisted the temptation to describe great battles, and 
illustrate the glory of the nation's patriots and the 
valour of her defenders. 

But the Bible is not so silent concerning the 
feelings of godly and patriotic men toward the ene- 
mies who attempted the nation's overthrow. It is not 
silent concerning the justice that moved them to 
enter the conflict, nor the thanksgiving to the 
"God of battles" after their triumph had been 
won. We could not understand these feelings, nor 
these thanksgivings, if we had no experience of war, 
nor of victory. 

There are, in the Bible, things which we are now 
prepared to understand more fully than in the days 
of peace. If certain feelings of men were wrong, 
we need to know their error and avoid it, and hush 
our thanksgivings for victory. If they were right 
— if in. their severity they were just, we need to 
appreciate the reason. 

You have found in David's Psalms "some things 
hard to be understood." David was a man of 
mercy. He was no cruel, revengeful, and unre- 



202 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

lenting despot. But as a king lie was a man of 
justice. There was a righteousness that filled his soul 
with judgment upon the enemies of the government of 
which he was the administrator. He did not stand 
forth, and with boasting declare his vengeance 
against them. He submitted his case to God. He 
breathed his severest thoughts through prayer, and 
implored Jehovah to execute justice. 

" Arise, Lord, in thine anger, lift up thyself 
because of the rage of mine enemies : and awake 
for me to the judgment that thou hast commanded. 
— Give them according to their deeds, and accord- 
ing to the wickedness of their endeavours : give 
them after the work of their own hands ; render to 
them their desert. — Destroy thou them, God; 
let them fall by their own counsels ; cast thou them 
out in the multitude of their transgressions ; for 
they have rebelled against thee." 

Dr. Duff, the celebrated Scottish Missionary in 
Calcutta, said that he could not understand how 
these deprecatory prayers were consistent with the 
teachings of the New Testament, until the Sepoy 
rebellion broke out with such terrific fury, and foes 
rose up filling the land with violence, shaking the 
foundations of government, threatening towns and 
cities with fire and sword, murdering the inno- 
cent, persecuting Christians with especial cruelty, 
making resistless missionaries a sacrifice to brutal 
lust and deathly torture, and rolling back the tide 
of Christian civilization, that iniquity might come 



DEAL GENTLY. 203 

in again like a flood, and heathenism be re-estab- 
lished with all the horrors of barbarism and idola- 
try. Only then could it be known that there are 
times in the outbreaking of human enmity when 
the pleadings of mercy are in vain, and Justice 
must draw the sword for a vigorous war of self- 
defence. 

These expressions of David, when rightly un- 
derstood, have never excited or encouraged the 
spirit of revenge. — They are no more fitted to have 
such an effect than the severe sentence of justice 
pronounced by a judge, or the act of an officer who 
executes the penalties of death. — Even these de- 
nunciations are not absolute. They are submitted 
to a righteous God, and are suspended on the ene- 
my's persistence in opposition, or his repentance 
and his cessation from deeds of injustice. p 

Yet why these feelings toward enemies ? The 
fact of their being natural to human nature might 
condemn them. The reason is plain. They were 
not simply David's enemies, nor were their oppo- 
sition and injustice merely a personal matter with 
him. If so, he was the very man to have prayed 
for their pardon and to have forgiven them. For 
mercy and forgiveness towards his personal foes, 
were distinguishing traits #of his character. But 
these foes were the enemies of God. They were 
the haters of the Lord. They had risen up against 
the government which Jehovah had established. 
They sought to break the union of the tribes and 



204 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

states of Israel. To war against the Theocracy 
was to fight against God. And hence he could 
consistently say in his appeal to Jehovah — 

" Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies ; 
thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee. 
Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time 
of thine anger : the Lord shall swallow them up in 
his wrath, and the fire shall devour them. — For 
they intended mischief against thee : they imagined 
a mischievous device, which they are not able to 
perform. Therefore thou shalt make them turn 
their back, when thou shalt make ready thine arrows 
upon thy strings against the face of them." 

And why could David render thanksgiving to 
God for the defeat or death of his enemies ? On 
what principle could he exult in a tone of solemn 
triumph, saying, "Thou hast smitten all mine ene- 
mies ; thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly. 
— I have pursued mine enemies, and have over- 
taken them ; neither did I turn again until they 
were consumed. I beat them small as the dust be- 
fore the wind?" 

No doubt the language has often startled us. It 
does not seem, at first, quite like the gospel spirit 
of "peace on earth, and good will to men." But 
remember, David was seeking peace and righteous- 
ness. Only by war could they be gained. They 
who had taken the sword must perish by the sword. 
They who would acknowledge no principle but 
justice upon themselves, must be subdued by judg- 



DEAL GENTLY. 205 

ments. And remember that God had anticipated 
the fact that these enemies would be submissive to 
nothing but the power of military justice. On ac- 
count of their sins, he had declared against them 
a war of subjugation, and if that were not enough, 
a war of extermination. David, therefore, thought 
it his duty to sweep them away as unsparingly and 
as thoroughly as a benevolent man would clear 
away the elements of a pestilence. 

This justice is a principle about which there is 
sometimes a feeble sentimentalism that makes even 
mercy unmeaning, and deprives law of its penalties, 
and dares to go so far as to deny its power in 
God's government, and its, place among his attri- 
butes. Without its proper exercise in our fami- 
lies, our schools, our courts, our government, we 
shall inevitably come to wreck. It is but another 
name for an exalted and all-comprehending Love. 
It is love for all holy truth, for righteousness, for 
liberty, for just government, and for God who has 
ordained the powers that exist for the highest na- 
tional welfare of men. It is a love for order, for 
peace — a peace that must sometimes be purchased 
with the sword — a love for union and for brother- 
hood. 

But this is not a love that repeals law, cancels 
the rights of a government and obliterates justice. 
God loves all men with an infinite benevolence 
and compassion, but this does not prevent the in- 
fliction of all the severities of just punishment. 
18 



206 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

He loves all holy principles more than he loves 
those who violate them. When you read his ut- 
terances against his enemies, " let it not be imagined 
that the Being from whom they come is without 
pity and without love ; never would he utter them 
if a milder course could serve the ends of true be- 
nevolence and comprehensive compassion. It is 
because he sees them to be truly indispensable 
that he resolves on such dismal severities; but 
once resolved on, he executes them without shrink- 
ing or sign of fear." 

We may imitate the Divine love, and still imitate 
also the Divine justice. We may love the guiltiest 
criminals according to law, still inflicting upon 
them, only in a legal manner, the severe penalties 
they have incurred. 

" Christian love is of two kinds — the love of 
approving complacency, and the love of benevo- 
lence. Every human being is entitled to our love 
of benevolence, or wishing him well, whatever be 
his character ; but it is only those whose character 
is amiable, who are entitled to our love of appro- 
bation and complacency. Applying this distinc- 
tion to our enemies, we ought to love them with 
benevolence, or wish them well, though their gene- 
ral character be bad." (Foote on Luke.) 

" We may love our enemy, and yet have resent- 
ment against him for his injurious behaviour to- 
ward us. But when this resentment entirely de- 
stroys our natural benevolence towards him, it is 



DEAL GENTLY. 207 

excessive, and becomes malice or revenge." (Bp. 
Butler.) 

With such feelings of justice towards the nation's 
enemies had King David come to meet the rebel- 
lion of Absalom. But never before had there been 
so great and so aggravated a national crime with 
which he was compelled to deal. All Israel in 
revolt at the instigation of one man, and that man 
his most beloved son ! Never before had his mer- 
ciful heart found it so hard to throw its iron blood 
into the arm that must be raised to inflict a right- 
eous punishment. Never before was his justice so 
tempered with mercy. Never before had he been 
constrained by affection for the guilty to say 
"deal gently." In loyalty and with respect for 
the "Lord's anointed" he had spared Saul when 
he had him in his power. But now in the same 
loyalty and with the same respect for the anoint- 
ing of the Lord, he must send forth his army to 
conquer the rebellious Absalom. How his heart 
passes over the hateful sin, and fixes in compassion 
on the son ! 

Many have thought that King David was carried 
away too far by the impulses of paternal affection. 
They do not sympathize with his "deal gently." 
They regard it as arising from a misdirected love, 
and a compromising pity. They think that his 
gentle dealing would have been unjust to the 
government and to the few loyal men who had not 
yet bowed to Absalom. They are surprised to 



208 THE EEBEL PRINCE. 

hear the righteous David, heretofore so rigid in his 
justice, saying, "deal gently." And Bishop Hall 
in astonishment exclaims, " holy David, what 
means this ill-placed love, this unjust mercy ? 
Deal gently with a traitor ! that traitor a son ! 
that son an Absalom! the graceless darliug of so 
good a father ! and this for thy sake, whose crown 
he has usurped, whose blood he is thirsting after ! 
For whose sake should Absalom be pursued, if he 
is spared for thine ? He was courteous to thy fol- 
lowers — affable and plausible to all Israel, — cruel 
and implacable only to thee ! And yet thou sayest, 
' Deal gently with the young man Absalom, for 
my sake.'" 

But remember, David has provided for the satis- 
faction which the government requires. He has 
sent his army to conquer and blot out rebellion. 
He has commissioned the sword to secure an atone- 
ment by blood, and hoping that the great crime 
of the nation will meet with the justice which the 
laws demand, he would at least save one rebel 
from the wreck. The one most loved, though 
guiltiest of all, has the first place in his heart. 
Let justice be done on a general scale, so that the 
government shall be satisfied, but spare Absalom 
"for my sake." 

Not for justice's sake — that demands a life twice 
forfeited, by murder and by treason. Not for the 
kingdom's sake — that requires an example to be 
made of the excuseless rebel; not for the law's 



DEAL GENTLY. 209 

sake, that can be made honourable only by the 
satisfaction of death — not for Jehovah's sake, for 
his decree hangs heavy over the criminal, and can- 
not be uplifted; not even for mercy's sake, for the 
extension of mercy is not rightly in the king's 
power, but "for my sake." My life is so much 
bound up in his, that the blow will fall on me. It 
will be like death to me. I cannot bear to see 
him slain. He is too guilty to die, and fall 
into the hands of the living God. "Deal gently." 
Beware that none touch the young man Ab- 
salom." 

Here was a God-like compassion, a Christ-like 
love. If God pitied us only as justice would mea- 
sure out compassion toward us, not one of us could 
be spared. If he dealt with us only for his king- 
dom's sake, there could be no gentleness. But for 
his own sake he loves the sinner, even while the 
sin is his abhorrence. He is greater than his 
government, for he established it; greater than 
his laws, for he made them. They exist for his 
sake, for his glory. He does not overlook them 
in his love for sinners. He does not cancel them 
in sparing the guilty. But he, in his unspeakable 
love, provides for the satisfaction of their demands. 
An atonement for our sin, our revolt from God, 
our rebellion against his government, is made by 
his only-begotten Son whom he sent into the world, 
and freely offered to us. He invites us to accept 
it. He deals gently with us to persuade us to re- 
18 * 



210 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

ceive the atonement, and the pardon of all our 
sins. And what may we plead ? " For thy name's 
sake" — for the glory of all the attributes which 
compose thy name — "pardon mine iniquity." 
" Save me for thy mercies' sake." 

It is for his own sake that he deals now with us 
in gentleness. If his government were all that he 
regarded, he might make a short work of sin upon 
earth. To crush this great rebellion against Jeho- 
vah, would be less than the work of a day. But 
to all ministering spirits who have power over sin- 
ners, he says " deal gently" with them, though 
their sins be great. To the sun, beariDg his arrows 
by day and the storms with their arrows by night, 
he says "deal gently." To the plague, the pesti- 
lence, and whole troop of diseases, sent forth to 
smite sinners, he says "deal gently." To all the 
powers that be ; to all who execute laws ; to all 
who are sent to warn sinners of the wrath to come, 
he declares in giving them their commissions, 
" deal gently" with the sons of men. And it may 
come to pass that by the mercies of God, by the 
love of Christ, by the tenderness of the Holy 
Ghost, and by the undeserved favours of a kind 
Providence, one here, and another there, may be 
led to turn an eye heavenward, and say with 
thankful heart, "thy gentleness hath made me 
great." And multitudes may say, of the Lord, 
" He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor 
rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as 



DEAL GENTLY. 211 

the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his 
mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the 
east is from the west, so far hath he removed our 
transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth 
his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear 
him. For he knoweth our frame, he remembereth 
that we are dust." 

What King David thought of doing with Absa- 
lom we know not. But we know that he could 
have pointed out to his guilty son, the way of 
atonement, pardon, and peace with God. And 
this we may all do, when dealing with those whose 
sins we hate, and may perhaps be called to treat 
with human punishment. The greater their trans- 
gressions, the more pity should we feel for the 
transgressors, and the more earnestly seek to re- 
claim them. We should "gaze upon the wandering 
mortal, however black his iniquity, with eyes 
wherein every glance of indignation, every dark 
speck of hatred, every scowl of revenge, is drowned 
in the softest dew." "Let who will deny the 
compatibility of a Christian hatred of sin, with a 
Christian love for the sinner; let it appear to 
philosophers and natural religionists chimerical or 
weak as it may; the Christian can always respond 
by merely pointing to him, (Christ Jesus,) as he 
appeared on that day when he looked over Jerusa- 
lem. Was there infinite hatred of sin in those 
words of doom ? Was there infinite love in those 
tears ? (Bayne.) 



212 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

Or if this be too high an example for us, look to 
King David, standing by the gate of Mahanaim, 
and with all the tender feelings of a father, and 
the pity of a godly man for the guilty, just on the 
verge of irrecoverable woe, pleading with the flint- 
faced messengers of justice, " Deal gently, for my 
sake, with the young man, even with Absalom." 

The young man ! If any need such pity ; if for 
any there be a plea that God and men would spare ; 
if toward any there should be tenderness, persua- 
sion and a winning loving-kindness, and if on any 
these may have an influence for everlasting good, 
he is the young man; any, every young man. 
Even though he be an Absalom, for whom justice 
waits, "go speak to that young man." Thy words 
may be as arrows piercing his sins, and he may go 
to the Saviour for the healing of his wound. 

Think gently of the erring, 0, do not thou forget, 
However darkly stained by sin, he is thy brother yet ! 
Heir of the self-same heritage, child of the self-same God, 
He hath but stumbled in the path thou hast in weakness trod. 

Speak kindly to the erring, thou yet may'st lead them back, 
With holy words and tones of love, from misery's thorny track ; 
Forget not, thou hast often sinned, and sinful yet may be, 
Deal gently with the erring one, as God hath dealt with thee. 



THE BATTLE. 213 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

TJie Battle. 

War must be 
While men are what they are ; while they have bad 
Passions to be roused up ; while ruled by men : 
While all the powers and treasures of a land 
Are at the beck of the ambitious crowd; 
While injuries can be inflicted, or 
Insults be offered ; yea, while rights are worth 
Maintaining, freedom keeping, or life having, 
So long the sword shall shine : so long shall war 
Continue, and the need of war remain. 

A slight knowledge of history will enable any 
one to refute the assertion that " God is with the 
strongest army." No description of an encamp- 
ment, was ever more vivid and touching than that 
of the opposing forces at Aphek, when Ben-hadad 
came with blustering words against Israel. "The 
children of Israel pitched before them like two 
little flocks of kids; but the Syrians filled tlie 
country." Yet the battle was not to the strong. 
One chased a thousand, and two put ten thousand 
to flight. We shall see it thus with King David. 

Sir Robert Adair, the English ambassador, had 



214 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

the pleasure of announcing to the Emperor of Rus- 
sia, Alexander, the great defeat of the French at 
Yittoria. "By the help of Providence, sire," said 
he, "we have gained a great victory at Yittoria." 
"What!" said the emperor, "is Providence one 
of your allies?" "Yes, sire," replied the ambas- 
sador ; " and the only one who requires no subsi- 
dies from us." 

The king's forces were small compared with 
those of Absalom, but what they lacked in num- 
bers was supplied by the justice of their cause. 
Joab was not the man to neglect his tactics. He 
seems to have chosen his ground so as to make the 
"wood of Ephraim" as advantageous as possible. 
By drawing them into it, and hemming them in, 
he, doubtless, was prepared to create a panic 
among the opposing troops. The mountaineers 
of Grilead with him knew how to make the best of 
a rough entangling forest. They were the Swiss 
of Bible times, kept in good training by their hos-. 
tile neighbours. The Bible says nothing of the 
lines, the columns, the right and left wings, nor 
the flankings, so fully detailed in modern accounts 
of battles. Josephus intimates that the rebel 
army made the attack, and that " upon the joining 
of the battle both sides showed great actions with 
their hands and their boldness : the one side ex- 
posing themselves to the greatest hazards and 
using their utmost alacrity, that David might re- 
cover his kingdom; the other being no way defi- 



THE BATTLE. 215 

cient, either in doing or suffering, that Absalom 
might not be deprived of that kingdom and brought 
to punishment by his father, for his impudent at- 
tempt against him." The rebels being the stronger 
in numbers, were solicitous not to be conquered by 
the few that were with Joab, for that would be the 
greatest disgrace to them; "while David's soldiers 
strove greatly to overcome so many ten thousands 
as the enemy had with them. Now David's men 
were conquerors, as superior in strength and skill 
in war ; so they followed the others as they fled 
away through the forests and valleys." 

Most likely Absalom's army was unwieldy and 
unworkable from its very size, and at the first 
shock gave way, was seized with a panic, fell into 
confusion, and ran in every direction, except to- 
ward their pursuers, "for the battle was then scat- 
tered over the face of all the country." Instead 
of a shelter, the forest proved a snare. God had 
foreseen this flight, and lest the routed army should 
again assemble, drill, organize more thoroughly, 
and prolong the contest, he had prepared the very 
ground for making speedy work of the rebellion. 
The bogs, jungles, and pitfalls, were all ready to 
receive them, and some think that wild beasts were 
at hand as a terrible reserve corps, to fulfil the de- 
signs of God in turning the victory to his servant 
David. " And the wood devoured more people that 
day than the sword devoured." There fell twenty 
thousand of the insurgents; most of them in the 



216 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

wilderness, where "thick oaks and tangled bushes, 
and thorny creepers growing over ragged rocks, and 
ruinous precipices down which the rebel army 
plunged in wild dismay, horses and men crushing 
each other to death in remediless ruin." "Well 
does Bishop Hall write, "The God of armies, who 
at his pleasure can save with many or with few, 
takes part with justice, and lets Israel feel what it 
is to bear arms for an impious usurper. Let no 
man hope to prosper by rebellion ; the very trees 
and thickets and pits and wild beasts of the woods 
shall conspire to the punishment of traitors." 

It can hardly be that Absalom was last of all 
his army in holding his ground. Xo evidence of 
bravery has yet appeared in all his conduct. His 
sly, underhand intrigues, and his mean revenges 
the rather prove his cowardice. His irreverence 
and disobedience, his lawlessness and shameful 
willingness to run into sin, evince a total want of 
moral courage, and this is an important element in 
the bravery that can stand unflinching in battle. 
We should expect him to be among the loudest in 
boasting before the trying hour, and then the very 
first to break ranks and get out of danger. Riding 
on a mule he must have pressed the stupid animal 
to the utmost, and made better speed than many 
whom he had promised should reign with him, or 
he would die with them. Bewildered, unable to 
ride into the jungles, or over the rough ground of 
the wood, and bent upon some way of escape, lie 



THE BATTLE. 217 

seems to have brushed one wing of the loyal army, 
and "met the servants of David." More terrified 
than ever, and spurring his mule until anger made 
him unmanageable, he was carried "under the 
thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught 
hold of the oak,* and he was taken up between the 
heaven and the earth; and the mule that was un- 
der him went away." Says Matthew Henry, " He 
hung between heaven and earth, as unworthy of 
either, as abandoned of both : earth would not 
keep him, heaven would not take him." There must 
be "no common fate for so uncommon a criminal. 
God will here, as in the case of those other rebels, 
Dathan and Abiram, * create a new thing,' tfiat it 
may be understood how 'this man provoked the 
Lord.'" 

The beauty of Absalom became a curse to him 
because he had perverted it. Men are often 
brought to ruin by the gift or talent in which they 
take a proud delight. "As if the even-handed jus- 
tice of Heaven would have its perfect work, he fell 
a victim to his ambition by means of that very per- 
sonal adornment in which his vanity had so much 
gloried." No doubt he was hung by his hair, for 

* " I had a delightful ramble this morning in these grand old 
forests, and now understand perfectly how Absalom could be caught 
by the- thick branches Of an oak. The strong arms of these trees 
spread out so near the ground, that one cannot walk erect beneath 
them j and on a frightened mule, such a head of hair as that vain 
but wicked son " polled every year, would certainly become inextri- 
cably entangled." (Lapd niul tj/e Bank.) 
19 



218 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

if by the neck, the sudden shock, or the close 
pressure of the branches, must have speedily killed 
him. But he lived long enough to have a world 
of thought pass swiftly through his mind, and to 
realize that with all the hearts he had stolen, there 
was not a friend near him in his final distress. 

summer friendship, 
Whose flattering leaves, with the least gust drop off 
In the autumn of adversity ! 

A few days since we saw David threatened with 
sudden horrors. His sunshine friends left him to 
his fate. Yet as his darkness fell thicker, one 
star after another came forth, firm in their loyalty, 
and brave in their devotion to him. Few they 
were, but faithful. To them he appeared an old 
man, throneless, crownless, without treasures, with- 
out oflices to bestow, without ability to reward 
their loyalty. But they stood the severe test. If 
he must be driven forth a wanderer hunted through 
forests, hiding in caves, with a price set upon his 
head, they would go with him, weep with him, bear 
his burdens, and stand between him and danger. 
Their fidelity cheered him. The voluntary devotion 
of strangers strengthened him. The Lord of Pe- 
niel stood by him. The angel of the Lord en- 
camped around about him. And had the worst of 
disasters befallen him ; had his troops been routed, 
and his cause been lost, there were warm and bold 
hearts which would not have deserted him in 
his extremity. They would have formed a wall 



THE BATTLE. 219 

around him, and with their lives defended his gray- 
hairs. 

Very strong is the contrast between his case and 
that of his son. Absalom had started out with 
court friends, gay admirers, flattered and fawning 
associates, men of stolen hearts, trimmers and trai- 
tors, a great and godless crew, who thought to be 
as desperately bold as pirates on a rough sea, but 
who would forsake their commander, and haste 
from the deck the moment the ship struck upon the 
rocks. And when calamity fell upon him, the 
prince was without a single friend. Not even an 
armour-bearer was with him as with Saul when he 
fled for Gilboa's refuge. In his flight he was alone. 
Some of his boastful company may have passed 
him as he hung in the oak, but not one had time to 
help him. Each was intent to save himself, and 
left him to the retribution which God had in re- 
serve for him. Rarely was there a form of judg- 
ment more appropriate. . The great thief was ut- 
terly impoverished in his last hour. With all his 
havoc of loyal hearts, not one cleaves to him when 
he needs its aid. The traitor is betrayed. The 
heartless cruelty of the world in the hour of ad- 
versity is proverbial : " friendship that flames, goes 
out in a flash." 

The friends who in our sunshine live 
When winter comes are flown. 

But never was there a more richly-deserved ex- 
hibition of it. Friends got without merit, go with- 



220 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

out mercy. An hour ago with untold warriors 
around him, Absalom claimed the throne, from 
which he would fling favours to the hungry crowd 
who helped him up its steps. But now he hangs 
utterly helpless, his only companion a conscience 
piercing his soul with arrows, and his only pros- 
pect a fearful looking-for of judgment. Had he 
hung there as long as we have dwelt upon this part 
of the divine retribution, he must have died, as 
Ahithophel and Judas did, by hanging. But he is 
to die by a " variety of deaths." 

However Joab may have endeavoured to fire the 
hearts of his soldiers with unsparing vengeance, as 
if he would neutralize the tender charge of the 
king, there was one man who was cool enough to 
obey his superior, and who considered obedience 
the best loyalty. And still he knew that justice 
should be done, and who would do it ? He told 
the general, as a soldier true to the cause, if not to 
the charge of his king. Joab, wondering that any 
man should not think David's command a more 
honoured in the breach than in the observance," 
chided him, "Why didst thou not smite him there 
to the ground ? and I would have given thee ten 
shekels of silver and a girdle." Perhaps he had 
made such a promise to any one who should slay 
the prince. The reply proved him to be no hire- 
ling soldier : " Though I should receive a thousand 
shekels of silver in my hand, yet would I not put 
forth my hand against the king's son, for in our 



THE BATTLE. 221 

hearing the king charged thee and Abishai and 
Ittai, saying, "Beware that none touch the young 
man Absalom. Otherwise I should have wrought 
falsehood against mine own life, (and forfeited it 
by disobeying orders,) for there is no matter hid 
from the king, and thou thyself wouldst have set 
thyself against me." The giver of a bribe despises 
the man who receives it as a reward for violating 
law. Joab could not blame the soldier for his cau- 
tion, and said, "I may not tarry thus with thee." 
It is no time for parleying and hanging on nice 
scruples. " The safety of the people is the su- 
preme law." 

It was the purpose of God that this rebel against 
him, his laws, his theocracy, and his anointed king, 
should perish. Providence has been against him. 
But it seems that for David's sake, he, in his ten- 
derness, withheld the Almighty hand. He per- 
mitted a human agent to come to the execution. 
The instruments he employs for such stern judg- 
ments are commonly men of little compassion, of 
firm nerve, and of relentless purpose. Such a man 
was Joab. Pity was in his eyes a weakness, com- 
passion an infirmity. No doubt, he regarded the 
king's gentleness as absurd, unjust to himself, and 
the kingdom. The usurper deserved to hurry over 
the last inch between him and death. 

No slight token of the Divine hand in judgment 
is seen in the fact that Joab was once the best, the 
firmest, the boldest friend that Absalom had in all 
19 * 






222 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

Israel. His intercession had secured the recall of 
the exile from Greshur. He had gone there and 
brought him home. He had as-ain become his ad- 
vocate, and gained for him admittance to his fa- 
ther, the court, the city through which he paraded 
in princely display, and the hearts of the people 
whom he seduced from their allegiance. Of all 
men the prince was most indebted to Joab. But; 
his offence grew rank, because he had plotted a 
huge treason against the government which the 
general served. Joab could forget that he had 
once been the friend of a prince who had basely 
forgotten that he was a son. 

"We must give Joab the credit of not having 
burned with revenge, to take the prince's life with 
his own hand, or else he would not have rebuked 
the soldier for not doing it. It was not a deed that 
he would care to boast of, or for which he would 
receive any personal honours. Enough of such 
deeds had been done by him already, and yet we 
cannot credit him with any true repentance if we 
look forward to his continued revenges. To classify 
it with acts of regular warfare, he " took three darts 
in his hand, and thrust them through the heart of 
Absalom, while he was yet alive in the midst of the 
oak. And ten young men that bare Joab's armour 
compassed about and smote Absalom, and slew 
him." They made sure his death. When one su- 
perior breaks his king's command, ten subordinates 
imitate, and even go beyond, his example. 



THE BATTLE. 223 

" There was, probably, a true regard for the 
king «and kingdom in this act of Joab. He knew 
that Absalom could not with safety be suffered to 
live, and that it would be difficult to rid the state 
of so foul a member at any other time than now, 
when a just right to slay him had been earned in 
open battle. This is by no means to be classed 
with Joab's assassinations" — of Abner and Amasa. 
" It had nothing in common with them. Nothing 
can be alleged against him in this matter but his 
disobedience to the king ; but he, in his position, 
felt that he dared to disobey him for his own good, 
and that he was quite prepared to vindicate and 
maintain this deed." [Dr. Kitto.) "VYe must, how- 
ever, be careful not to make the deed justify the 
man. That Absalom deserved death — even such a 
horrible death — for his rebellion, we cannot deny 
without doing violence to our just convictions. 
That God did not arrange the circumstances for 
this very mode of punishing the lawless, heartless, 
and rebellious prince, we cannot deny, for his hand 
is clearly seen. But yet the just deserts of Absa- 
lom, and the evident designs of God in visiting them 
upon him, do not alone justify the act. Though 
delivered of God to death, yet the actual slaying 
may have been by "wicked hands." Joab acted 
upon his own authority and by his own free will ; 
God turned it to advantage in executing his pur- 
pose, and the doer must bear the entire responsi- 
bility for the deed. 



224 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

Noble is the spirit of the general in the further 
strife. The people under his command are pursu- 
ing, slaying, and can scarcely be restrained. It is 
with them a soldier's work to be done in a soldier's 
way. But " he holds back the people." Enough 
has been done at the oak ; it need not be extended 
through the forest. The nation's crime has been 
atoned by the death of its author. The rebels all 
deserve death, but mercy shall arrest the sword. 
" The generous heart can distinguish between the 
leader of a faction, and the misguided multitude, 
and can pity those who are deceived, while it or- 
dains vengeance to their deceiver." Joab blew the 
trumpet for retreat, and the people returned from 
pursuing after Israel. And all Israel fled every 
man to his tent, or his home in his own tribe. 
They all went in haste, thinking and talking of how 
they might assure the king of their sudden conver- 
sion to loyalty, and be received again as good sub- 
jects of his government. None so base now in 
their estimation as Absalom, none so good as Da- 
vid. Their hearts are their own again, and to the 
rightful sovereign they shall be given. 

From the Bible we derive authority and example 
for the solemn rites of burial. The dead, whoever 
they be, whatever they have done, are entitled to 
the ministries of kindness, and to a grave sacred 
and undisturbed. The guiltiest rebel may be 
buried with a pity for the lost, and a prayer for 
the living. It seems that Joab's men buried Absa- 



THE BATTLE. 225 

lorn, and were not so true to a proper regard for 
the dead, or a tenderness for the feelings of the 
king. They could not separate the idea of his 
treason from his lifeless body. In their eyes it 
was still Absalom. " And they took Absalom, and 
cast him into a great pit in the wood, and laid a 
very great heap of stones upon him." Far grander 
was the burial which the ambitious young prince 
had planned for himself, as we shall see when 
considering his expectations of undying renown. 
He was cast into a pit, although he had reared for 
himself a pillar. Over him was a rude mound in- 
stead of his carefully-built monument. 

If the busy Ahimaaz was as forward in battle as 
he wished to be in bearing the tidings, he must 
have been an eager soldier in the front rank, and 
given a hard chase to many a routed rebel, or a 
deadly blow to one entangled in the vines of the 
wood. He did not think " the first bringer of un- 
welcome news hath but a losing office." He imag- 
ined that the king would be glad to hear " how 
that the Lord had avenged him of his enemies." 
It was worthy of the high-priest's son to recognize 
the hand of God in the victory. But Joab re- 
strained the officious and nimble-footed messenger. 
He feared to let the painful tidings go upon the 
wings of the wind, or by the tongue of one who 
might too bluntly break them to the king. The 
son of the high-priest would tell the whole truth, 
and that was what Joab wanted David not to know. 



226 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

Another day would do as well, or if one must go, 
let him be a more cautious and witty messenger. 
Cushi was the man, better versed in the art of put- 
ting things in softer words. Scarcely was he out 
of sight, when the eager Ahimaaz begged to run, 
and at the third entreaty was allowed to go. 
" Light of foot as a wild roe," he ran by the way 
of the plain, and " seemed in running to devour the 
way." - 

King David's heart had been for hours on the 
rack, and the suspense became full of dread. He 
was perhaps more anxious to learn that Absalom 
lived, than that the battle was gained. It is a 
touching picture — that of the king sitting between 
the two gates, the watchman looking out from the 
tower, calling to the porter, announcing the herald, 
and preparing David to expect good news. If a 
troop had been seen hurrying on in broken ranks, 
it would have been a sign that Joab had been re- 
pulsed, and in the panic, some of the terrified were 
making good their escape. But " a man running 
alone," must be a welcome courier. "Another 
man running alone," was a still more gladly sight, 
and especially as the foremost one was the son of 
Zadok. Remembering his important message, 
brought safely from Hushai, the king said, " He is 
a good man, and cometh with good tidings." In 
haste to relieve the king's mind, he cried out, 
"Peace to thee — all is well." Coming nearer, he 
fell down upon the earth, and said, "Blessed be 



THE BATTLE. 227 

the Lord thy God, which hath delivered up the 
men that lifted up their hand against my lord the 
king." The victory was sure, but he told not the 
cost. 

"Poor David is so much a father that he forgets 
he is a king, and therefore cannot rejoice in the 
victory." Made suspicious by the careful conceal- 
ment of his son's name, he asks, " Is the young 
man Absalom safe ?" In trying to be kind to his 
sovereign, the courier becomes false to the facts, 
replying, "When Joab sent the king's servant 
(Cushi), and me thy servant, I saw a great tumult, 
and knew not what it was." He may have seen 
such an unknown tumult, but he dishonestly evaded 
the truth. By suppressing the truth he suggests a 
falsehood. Cushi has studied his message, and, 
coming near, declares, " The Lord hath avenged 
thee this day of all them that rose up against 
thee." And then to the question, "Is the young 
man Absalom safe?" he replies with ingenious 
honesty, " The enemies of my lord the king, and 
all that rise up against thee to do thee hurt, be as 
that young man is." The whole truth is known, 
and the heart of the royal father breaks. 

It has been thought that Joab wished to restrain 
the son of Zadok, lest the king should deal with 
the messenger of evil tidings as he had done with 
those who had brought him the news of the death 
of Saul and Ishbosheth. In order to save the 
young priest from such a fate, he sent Cushi, sup- 



228 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

posed to be an Ethiopian servant, whose loss would 
not be so great. If this be a happy guess at the 
truth, we have much to admire in the slow but wise 
courier. He earned the sparing of his life, even 
had there been the least danger. The truth should 
be told kindly to those who are scarcely able to 
bear it, but let there be evasion, no falsehood. 
Nor is Cushi the only one who put balm upon the 
sword that must pierce a parent's heart. When 
David's child was dead (2 Sam. xii. 18, 19) the 
servants hinted the fact in their whispering one to 
another, and the truth broke upon him, not as a 
thunder-clap, but as the gentle breaking of the 
day. 






my son ! 229 



CHAPTER XIX. 

O Absalom, my Son! 

And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over 
the gate, and wept : and as he went, thus he said, my son Absa- 
lom, my son, my son Absalom ! would G-od I had died for thee, 
Absalom, my son, my son ! — 2 Sam. xviii. 33. 

It is ever difficult to rebuke sorrow, and most of 
all when it seems unreasonable. Silence and sym- 
pathy may soothe, when arguments and reproofs 
only harrow up the heart. The one admirable 
thing in the conduct of Job's three mistaken friends 
was their sitting down with him seven days and 
speaking not a word unto him ; for they saw that 
his grief was very great. Not until he spoke, did 
they break their silence, and then the man of wi- 
sest years and gentlest spirit began by saying, 
" If we assay to commune with thee wilt thou be 
grieved?" 

There were none thus tender to weep with David 
when he needed comforters. To all about him his 
excessive grief seemed deserving of rebuke. He 
was ignoring the interests of the kingdom. He 
was forgetting that the rebel prince had doubly 
20 



230 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

forfeited his life, and attempted to take the life of 
his father. He was regardless of the victory, and 
the mercy of God, "who had given it to his small 
army. He was abandoning himself to his natural 
feelings, and allowing himself to burst into wild, 
passionate cries, all the more painful to his attend- 
ants because in such contrast to his usually subdued 
emotions. In the agony of his private grief he 
was slighting the public welfare of the government. 
To their loyal hearts the government -with its liber- 
ties, its religion and its laws, was worth more than 
life — unspeakably more than such a life as that of 
the lawless prince who had conspired against it. 
And now when the battle is gained, the kingdom 
recovered, the stolen crown won back by the sword, 
the danger passed, the rebellion crushed, he ex- 
claims, " Would God I had died for thee, Absa- 
lom !" 

It would have been natural for all who heard this 
strange lamentation to meet it with the thought, 
" What if the king were dead ! "What if Absa- 
lom were conqueror!" Before their imaginations 
would come up the vision of terror. The Lord's 
anointed slain, and the usurper in power ; the ty- 
rant having his will and the ungodly having their 
way ; religion put under the ban, and the flood- 
gates of iniquity opened : loyal men, true to their 
king, cringing for the cold mercy of traitors, or 
treated with cruelty for a brave resistance to their 
burning rage ; and the servants of God compelled 



MY SON ! 231 

to violate conscience and yield, or imperil their 
lives by refusing to submit to the rule of a grace- 
less, lawless demagogue — all this, and more if the 
king's life and cause had been lost, and if Absalom 
had won the day and the throne. Surely, David 
did not mean all this, when he seemed to wish his 
life, worth ten thousand of theirs, laid down for a 
parricide, a murderer, and an armed rebel. But 
to the people it bore the tone of an utterance rash 
and unadvised. < 

We may hear in it the wail of a father, whose 
one all-absorbing grief renders him forgetful of the 
mighty interests of the nation, made dependent 
upon himself. If victory were not gained, if the 
government were not secured, and if the throne 
were not perfectly safe, he might have anxieties for 
these great national interests ; but the very fact 
that he is sure of these, turns his whole attention 
to the fate of his son. He forgets Absalom's 
crafty intrigues, and forgets his cruelties toward 
his father, or rather he forgets the punishment 
they deserved, and which God has rendered, and 
thinks of the crimes that are unatoned, and their 
woes upon his son. His sins were great, but their 
very greatness rendered him all the more unfit for 
sudden death. While there was life, there was 
hope that in some way he might be reclaimed, re- 
deemed, and brought to peace with his father and 
his God. But he is dead with all the guilt of a 
monstrous rebellion upon him. There is no hope 



232 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

in his death. He is gone from earth for ever ; 
gone hopelessly beyond the reach of all the yearn- 
ings of a father's heart ; gone where all the tears 
shed over him and the prayers offered for him can 
avail nothing, and this makes the tears fall faster, 
scalding a father's cheek; gone to answer for 
crimes that were revolting in the sight of God and 
men, and there seems no doubt but that the re- 
demption of his soul has ceased for ever. 

We may attribute to his grief this element of 
agony over a lost soul — the lost soul of a beloved 
son. It is the most generous view to be taken of 
his sorrow, and then how noble it appears ! He 
would die for Absalom, if that could redeem him 
from his guilty death. There are parents now who 
know something of what this means. It is the 
most painful and unselfish sorrow that a godly fa- 
ther or mother can know. With it nothing else 
can be named in comparison. 

A group of friends were once talking together 
of their troubles. One spoke of a loss, another of 
a bereavement, but at last one sad, pale woman 
said with plaintive voice, "Not one of you know 
what trouble is." She then drew the picture of a 
southern home where the years rolled by uncounted, 
and a happy family sang and smiled in bliss. But 
one night, said she, " one of those fierce black 
storms came on, when the rains poured down in- 
cessantly. Morning dawned, and still the elements 
raved. The whole Savannah seemed afloat with 



ABSALOM, MY SON ! 233 

wrecks. The little stream near our dwelling be- 
came a raging torrent. Before we were aware of 
it our house was surrounded with- water. I took 
my infant and sought a place of safety, while my 
husband and sons strove to save what they could 
of our property. At last a fearful surge swept 
away my husband, and he never rose again. No 
one loved a husband more, but that was not trouble. 

"The sullen river raged around the huge trees, 
dead branches, logs, wrecks of houses, drowning 
cattle, masses of rubbish went floating by. I saw 
my boys — they waved their hands, and pointed up- 
ward. I knew the farewell signal, and you, mo- 
thers, cannot imagine my anguish. I saw them 
perish, and yet, that was not trouble. 

"I pressed my child close to my heart, and when 
the water rose to my feet,. I climbed into the low 
branches of a tree, and so was kept until an All- 
powerful Hand stayed the waves, and I was saved. 
All my earthly possessions were gone, all my 
earthly hopes were blighted, yet that was not 
trouble. 

" That child was all I had left on earth. I laboured 
night and day to support him and myself, and 
sought to train him in the right way ; but as he 
grew older, evil companions won him away from 
me. He ceased to care for his mother's counsels ; 
he would sneer at her entreaties and agonizing 
prayers. He left my humble roof that he might 
be unrestrained in the pursuit of evil ; and at last, 
20 * 



234 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

when heated by wine one night, he took the life of 
a fellow-being, and ended his own upon the scaf- 
fold. My heavenly Father had filled my cup of 
sorrow before, but now it ran over. That teas 
trouble, such as I hope God in his mercy may ever 
spare you." She might have exclaimed, ''Would 
God I had died for thee, my son, my son ! ; ' 

And now notice how patiently and profitably 
King David took rebuke. The people were sorry 
that "he was grieved for his son," when they 
thought he ought to be satisfied, or at least sub- 
missive. He was a father, and they would treat 
with delicate tenderness his unquenched affection 
and boundless distress. The king was aged, worn, 
and greatly burdened, and they were exceedingly 
careful not to offend him in his sorrow. They did 
not march from the battle field as conquerors with 
their ranks preserved, with the spoils of war, with 
trophies wrested from the dying, and with the 
shouts of triumph. But they "gat them by stealth, 
that day, into the city, as people being ashamed 
steal away when they flee in battle." They may 
have done this rather from policy than in real 
sympathy, as if they had been so advised by the 
crafty Joab, and said, "As the king wishes Absa- 
lom were alive, we will disguise our victory, and 
act as if he had beaten us, and driven us in shame 
and fear into the city. Then the king may be- 
think himself of what he is wishing, and come to 
know what a great and good victory we have gained 



ABSALOM, MY SON ! 235 

for him by the help of God. He may then turn 
his tears into thanks because his army is not so 
defeated as it appears." But David was not af- 
fected by a disguise so boldly in contrast with the 
reality. The sight of his servants reminded him 
more painfully of the absence and death of his son, 
and he covered his face, and cried with a loud 
voice " my son Absalom ; Absalom, my son, 
my son!" 

Joab was tried beyond all his patience, and he 
resolved to put an end to a grief in his eyes un- 
worthy and unpardonable. He was not serving 
his king for naught, nor did the brave soldiers de- 
serve such a slight put upon their courage and 
their triumph. They would not bear it. If their 
services were not appreciated, they would leave 
him to his grief and ingratitude. A king who 
could not pay bounties to his brave defenders 
ought, at least, to give them thanks, and the most 
foolish thing for him to do, would be to ignore 
their victory. Joab, like the first Napoleon, had 
the gift of eloquence, and his speech to the king 
proves his faithfulness to the government at an 
hour when its largest interests were at stake. If 
too blunt as an orator, he was not too zealous as a 
general, in his thrilling speech. 

" Thou hast shamed this day the faces of all thy 
servants, which this day have saved thy life, (when 
Absalom sought it,) and the lives of thy sons, and 
of thy daughters, and of thy wives, and of thy con- 



236 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

cubines, in that thou lovest thine enemies and 
hatest thy friends. For thou hast declared this 
day (by thy untimely grief) that thou regardest 
neither princes nor servants; for this day, I per- 
ceive, that if Absalom had lived, and all we had 
died this day, then it had pleased thee well. Now 
therefore, arise, go forth, and speak comfortably 
unto thy servants, for I swear by the Lord, if thou 
go not forth, there will not tarry one with thee 
this night; and that will be worse unto thee than 
all the evil that befell thee from thy youth until 
now." 

Thus thrilled and threatened the king came to 
himself, shook off his grief, no longer appeared 
unto men to mourn, and went to the gate which 
served as the public hall of the city. There he 
sat to smile upon his troops when they should pre- 
sent themselves, welcome them and thank them 
for their services and their successes. Men are 
willing to be commanded, if they may be also com- 
mended when they are faithful. The people heard 
of the king's public appearance, came before him, 
and the mourning was turned into an acknowledg- 
ment of the victory. 

The oft-quoted poem of a living author, repre- 
sents the body of Absalom brought before the 
king, when he bends over it, and utters his un- 
availing lament. The facts are not at all con- 
sistent with such a fancy. Absalom's body had 
already been disposed of, and there is no shadow 



my son! 237 

of probability that the king attempted to recover 
it. When imagination does violence to the Scrip- 
ture narrative, the poetry is spoiled, and the truth 
sacrificed. The entire poem is so untrue to fact 
and real feeling that it deserves rebuke. The 
simple record rebukes it, for there is nothing in it 
like the unparalleled description of the king weep- 
ing as he went up to his chamber, and losing him- 
self in the emotions of grief. But God wiped away 
all tears from his eyes. 



238 THE REBEL PRINCE. 



CHAPTER XX. 

Hie Pillar in the King's Dale. 

" The noblest renown is posthumous fame, and the most refined 
ambition is the desire of such fame." — James Hamilton, d. d. 

Were it not for one verse, we should not know 
that Absalom had a little refinement in his ambi- 
tion, and wished for something beyond the revel- 
lings of a day or the follies of a life. We should 
think of him as too absorbed in mirth ever to plan 
a monument. To us he would appear as one so en- 
tirely given to foppery, feasting and the use of 
power for temporary advantage, as to live by the 
common oriental motto, "let us eat and drink, for 
to-morrow we die:" or as one playing the dema- 
gogue for an office that would enlarge the sphere 
of his baser passions, and rebelling, for rebellion's 
sake, against all that would secure to his name a 
happy remembrance. "We should regard him as 
altogether thoughtless of death, of a grave, and of 
the good opinions of the after generations. But 
if he cared not what men thought of his conduct, 
he did care what should be the fate of his name. 



THE PILLAR IN THE KING'S DALE. 239 

It must be remembered after his death. He took 
pains to secure a posthumous fame. One verse 
tells it, and the place of that verse in the Bible is 
remarkable. Just after the record of his burial, as 
if to mark emphatically the contrast between the 
disgrace he received and the honour he had antici- 
pated, we read thus: " Now Absalom in his life- 
time had taken and reared up for himself a pillar, 
which is in the king's dale: for he said, I have no 
son* to keep my name in remembrance : and he 
called the pillar after his own name : and it is 
called unto this day Absalom's place." 

Early then he took this matter in hand : very 
likely in the days when he gave more time to hair- 
dressers than to the teachers of wisdom. How ri- 
diculous for a young man of twenty to rear such a 
monument ! To reduce the absurdity a little it 
has been supposed that he undertook the glorious 
enterprise about the time that ,he indulged in 
horses, chariots and his fifty outrunners. If so, 
his two sons were then dead, and his loss ought to 
have led him to think of their graves, rather than 
of a pillar of renown for himself. It ought to have 
sobered him so that he would have set about rear- 
ing a character for himself, and doing something 
worthy of remembrance. An example of repent- 
ance and of holiness would have consecrated his 

* " I do not wonder that it was thought a great misfortune to die 
childless in old time when they had not fuller light — it seems so 
completely wiping a man out of existence." — Life of Thomas Arnold. 



240 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

name on the roll of the saints. Perhaps, like 
Aaron Burr, he bestowed the proudest attentions 
upon his beautiful daughter Tamar, and what a 
blessed memory he might have attained had he 
taught her in the ways of the Lord ! 

Her children might have risen up to call him 
blessed, and in his old age buried him in a nobler 
tomb than any his own hands could prepare. And 
if she was the mother or grandmother of Abijam, 
it might not have been said of him, that he walked 
in all the sins of his father Rehoboam. Or had 
Absalom not wasted his money upon dress and 
equipage, and bestowed it upon the poor, his alms 
might have come up as a memorial before God. 
A loaf of bread put upon the table of a serf would 
have been a better monument than a marble pillar 
in the king's dale. 

His kindness would have embalmed Ms name; 
Goodness, not greatness, would have been his fame. 

But he was bent upon a wicked, cruel, and rebel- 
lious career which would set him among the execrated 
of mankind, and the name Absalom sounded so 
musically in his ear, that he imagined its tone 
would bring all the discords of his life into har- 
mony. If the pen of wisdom would not transmit 
it, if the trump of war would not sound it forth, or 
if the anecdotes of brilliant wit would never em- 
blazon it, he would write it on the chiselled rock. 
His must be a pillar extraordinary, imposing in 



THE PILLAR IN THE KING'S DALE. 241 

the distance and towering loftily above the tombs 
of good and holy men whose names would never 
die, because their works should follow them. " It 
would be injustice to mankind if he suffered the 
memory of his grandeur to perish," and he could 
not afford to trust it to the uncertainties of his own 
merits, or of the people's gratitude. "His care was 
to have his name kept in remembrance, and it is 
so, to his everlasting dishonour. He could not be 
content in the obscurity of the rest of David's 
sons, but would be famous, and is therefore justly 
made forever infamous." — (Henry.) 

His very ambition for renown was made to mock 
his memory, for he was buried in disgrace, far 
from his pillar, in a pit. He received a traitor's 
ancient burial. The heap of stones was not raised 
over him in honour because he was the king's son, 
but in detestation of his enormous crime. He was 
deemed worthy of the punishment due to a rebel- 
lious son, (Deut. xxi. 18-21,) who was to be led 
outside of the city walls and stoned to death. 
Jewish writers say that this sentence was not actu- 
ally inflicted, but by casting stones over the grave, 
the people showed that it ought to have been. 
They also say that every passer-by was accustomed 
to throw a stone on the heap that covered the re- 
mains of Absalom, and as he threw it he said, 
" Cursed be the memory of rebellious Absalom, 
and cursed for ever be all wicked children that rise 
up in rebellion against their parents." In " The 
21 



242 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

Land and the Book," the author writes, "It is a 
wide-spread custom for each one as he passes the 
spot where any notorious murderer has been buried, 
to cast a stone upon it. I have often seen this 
done, and yielding to the popular indignation have 
thrown my stone among the rest. I am reminded 
of all this" — the case of Absalom — "by the con- 
duct of my guide, who has actually dismounted to 
spit upon this heap, and add his pebble to the 
growing pile." 

None but the vainest self-conceited fool would 
commemorate a victory before he had won it. 
Yet perhaps Absalom did. The tradition is that 
his monument was pointed with a hand, the symbol 
of power and of victory. Such pillars were in an- 
cient use, and are still found in the East. Jose- 
phus says that the prince named his pillar, " Ab- 
salom's Hand," and such is the Hebrew word 
rendered in our version, "Absalom's Place." The 
deserved interpretation of the symbol, if he put it 
there, was that his hand was raised against heaven, 
and against all thrones of God and men. 

The pillar lasted its time, but crumbled at length. 
Another rose on the supposed spot, not in honour 
of Absalom, but from an eagerness to restore 
fallen monuments. It still stands in the valley of 
Jehoshaphat, and " cannot be less than forty feet 
high." The natives believe it to be Absalom's 
tomb, and spit at it, and throw stones against it as 
they pass by, hating the ancient rebel whose name 



THE PILLAR IN THE KING'S DALE. 243 

they remember. "He need not have reared a pil- 
lar in the king's dale: his name will long survive 
his monument, and stand as a warning to all young 
men, to tell the story of the worst of sons, the 
prince of demagogues, the fallen victim of a vault- 
ing ambition." 

Looking from this monument to the death, the 
disgrace, and the lasting infamy of the man who 
reared it, let us quote the words of Chrysostom, 
from a sermon which would have been appropriate 
in Jerusalem if Nathan the prophet had preached 
them at the funeral of the prince, and may not yet 
have lost their point. " Where is now the feast 
of joyous assemblies ? Where are the crowns and 
magnificent ornaments ? Where the flattering re- 
ports of the city — the acclamations of the circus — 
the adulations of thousands of spectators ? All 
have passed away! The wind by one blast has 
swept the leaves, and now they show to us a dead 
tree, torn from its roots — so violent has been the 
tempest. It lies a broken ruin. Where are the 
pretended friends — the swarm of parasites — the 
tables charged with luxury — the wine circulated 
during entire days — where the various refinements 
of feasting — the supple language of slaves? What 
has become of them all ? A dream of the night which 
vanishes with the day ! A flower of spring which 
fades in the summer ! — a shade which passes ! — a 
vapour which scatters ! — a bubble of water which 
bursts ! — a spider's web which is torn ! ' Vanity 



244 THE EEBEL PRINCE. 

of vanities, all is vanity.' Inscribe these words on 
your walls, on your vestments, on your palaces, on 
your streets, on your houses, on your windows, on 
your doors ; inscribe them on your consciences, in 
order that they may represent it incessantly to 
your thoughts. Eepeat them in the morning; 
repeat in the evening; and in the assemblies of 
fashion, let each repeat to his neighbour, " Vanity 
of vanities, all is vanity.' " 

The only posthumous fame that can outlast all 
time, and extend through eternity, is the memory 
of God. The only deathless names are those writ- 
ten in the Lamb's book of life. Humble men and 
women they may be ; the Marys, the Dorcases, 
the fishermen of Galilee, or even the unnamed fel- 
low-labourers of the Apostle Paul. Mary did a 
little thing when she anointed Jesus' feet, but 
" wheresoever this gospel shall be preached through- 
out the whole world, this also that she hath done, 
shall be spoken of for a memorial of her." Great 
deeds have been forgotten, great names have no 
living record, marble monuments have crumbled 
into dust, but Mary — 

" Thou hast thy record in the monarch's hall, 

And on the waters of the far mid sea; 

And where the mighty mountain shadows fall, 

The Alpine hamlet keeps a thought of thee : 

Where'er, beneath some oriental tree, 

The Christian traveller rests — where'er the child 

Looks upward from the pious mother's knee 



THE PILLAR IN THE KING'S DALE. 245 

There art thou known : where'er the book of light 
Bears hope and healing, there beyond all blight 
Is borne thy memory, and all praise above : 
say, what deed so lifted thy sweet name, 
Mary, to that pure silent place of fame ? 
One lowly offering of exceeding love." 

21 * 






246 THE REBEL PRINCE. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

The Restoration. 

happy kings 
Whose thrones are raised in their subjects' hearts. 

Never did a rebellion sooner come to an end 
than that of Absalom. The people had gone into 
it with stolen, not with earnest hearts. After be- 
ing defeated, thej were, at once, disgusted with 
the whole affair, and fled home in haste, to avoid 
the suspicion that they had ever been such fools as 
to engage in a conspiracy, doomed to wreck from 
the first. Nor did they hide away in a corner, to 
wait until the king's wrath should be turned from 
them, but zealously set to work to pave the way 
for his restoration. In this the tribes of Israel 
(not including Judah) were the most forward. 
There was now no man like David, and they called 
to remembrance his prowess and fatherly care, 
saying, " The king saved us out of the hand of our 
enemies, and he delivered us out of the hand of the 
Philistines ; and now he is fled out of the land for 
Absalom. And Absalom, whom we anointed king 



THE RESTORATION. 247 

over us, is dead in battle. Now, therefore, why- 
speak ye not a word of bringing the king back ?" 
So great a benefactor should not remain in banish- 
ment. "Note, good services done to the public, 
though they may be forgotten for a while, yet will 
be remembered again, when men come to their 
right minds." The strife among them was, pro- 
bably, not whether the king should be invited 
back, for in this they were agreed : but why was it 
not more speedily done ? Whose fault was the 
delay ? " The people laid the blame on the elders, 
and the elders on the people, and one tribe on 
another." The noise of the goodly strife reached 
the king, and must have pleased him, while re- 
maining in his quarters at Mahanaim. 

After the sudden dispersion of the rebel army, 
David had the choice of two courses : either to 
march to Jerusalem at the head of his victorious 
troops and take military possession of the capital, 
or to wait until the people should invite him back 
to the throne from which they had driven him. 
The first plan would have been too hasty. It 
might not have secured the bringing back of the 
stolen hearts. By the second plan, he would make 
no show of force in claiming his rights, and thus 
avoid what is always unpopular. When the tribes 
felt their need of a king, they would hail his resto- 
ration, and the Philistines might cause them to need 
him very soon. His delicacy and wise manage- 
ment are highly commendable. He had reason to 



248 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

expect that Judah would first move in the matter. 
"Was Amasa, the defeated rebel general, keeping 
back David's own tribe? The hint is not unjust, 
(chap. xix. 13.) But while chagrined at the cold- 
ness of Judah, he is cheered by the warmth of the 
ten tribes of Israel. 

What he feared was disunion. Already were 
the party lines drawn between Israel and Judah. 
He must not be restored by only one party, and to 
rouse up Judah he sent Zadok and Abiathar the 
priests, with an affectionate entreaty. If they 
hung back, through fear that David would make 
an example of them, because among them the re- 
bellion had first been organized, they should be 
assured of the kindest treatment. The past should 
be forgotten, and he would assume the office of 
shepherd and father of his people. The message 
to them indicated his policy toward the insurgents ; 
"Why are ye the last to bring the king back to 
his house? seeing the speech of all Israel is come 
to the king, even to his house. Ye are my breth- 
ren, ye are my bones and my flesh ; wherefore, 
then, are ye the last to bring back the king ? And 
say ye to Amasa, Art thou not of my bone, and 
of my flesh ? God do so to me, and more also, if 
thou be not captain of the host before me con- 
tinually in the room of Joab." 

No vengeance, then, was to be taken on the re- 
bels, and the leader of their forces was not only to 
be spared from a traitor's deserts, but even pro- 



THE RESTORATION. 249 

moted to the highest military office. Comfortable 
news, certainly, and the people were overpowered 
by the goodness and generosity of the aged king. 
He was the same fatherly David that he had ever 
been, willing and anxious to forgive his rebellious 
sons. The preachers of mercy are the most suc- 
cessful. David thus " bowed the heart of the men 
of Judah, even as the heart of one man, so that 
they sent back this word to the king, Return thou, 
and all thy servants." 

From one extreme they rushed into another. 
The last to speak for David, they were the first to 
act for him. Such was their haste that they in- 
creased the very danger of disunion that the king 
had dreaded. Their leading men came to Gilgal, 
met the king, and without waiting for their jealous 
rivals in the ten tribes, they prepared to conduct 
him over Jordan. 

On the banks were certain others who were 
moving on their own responsibility, because they 
had selfish reasons for securing the good graces of 
the king. None were likely to be more officious 
in kind assistance, pushing themselves forward to 
row the ferry-boats in which were borne the king 
and his household. 

Scarcely had the royal feet touched the soil, 
when the best of friends were ready with their 
greetings, when Shimei made a better use of the 
tongue that had lately cursed David, and of the 
dust that he had cast into the air in derision. 



250 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

Falling down lie sought to agree with his adversary 
quickly while in the way with him. Even the 
cursing coward has boldness now to cringe before 
the man of mercy, for he knows there is no danger. 
He has tried to commend himself by starting the 
first of his tribe, coming in the goodly company of 
Judah ; and bringing with him a thousand men of 
Benjamin. His confession and plea show him to 
be more crafty than contrite. " Let not my lord 
impute iniquity unto me, neither do thou remember 
that which thy servant did perversely the day that 
my lord the king went out of Jerusalem, that the 
king should take it to his heart. For thy servant 
doth know that I have sinned ; therefore, (in my 
repentance,) I am come the first this day of all the 
house of Joseph, to go down to meet my lord the 
king." Abishai thought that he should be made 
to kiss the dust in death, but David felt, more than 
ever that the sons of Zeruiah were too hard for him, 
and by an oath sealed his pardon. We shall find 
that David afterward, considered this matter, and 
on the principle that a wrong promise is better 
broken than kept, broke the seal of pardon, and 
gave the death-warrant for Shimei's execution. 
(1 Kings- ii. 8, 9.) 

Ziba also had good cause for making an early 
appearance, and to render it more imposing brought 
his fifteen sons and twenty servants along with him. 
If the king saw what a large family he had to sup- 
port, pity for them might keep him from entirely 



THE RESTORATION. 251 

depriving Ziba of the property which he had ob- 
tained in so rascally a manner. Even swindlers 
must live. This one knew that the less he said 
the better, for his slow but sure master was on the 
way to Jerusalem to lay his case before the king. 
And here we may notice the visit of Mephibosheth, 
the son (of Jonathan, the son) of Saul. So strong 
had been his loyalty that he "had neither dressed 
his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his 
clothes, from the day that the king departed, until 
the day he came again in peace" — thus dooming 
himself to hardships similar to those of his sove- 
reign. Not yet had David any clue to the late 
affair of Ziba, and thinking that of all men whom 
he had ever favoured, the son of Jonathan was the 
very last to desert him, he put the stern question, 
" Wherefore wentest not thou with me, Mephibo- 
sheth ? And he answered, My lord, king, my 
servant deceived me ; for thy servant said, I will 
saddle me an ass, that I may ride thereon, and go 
to the king : because thy servant is lame. And he 
hath slandered thy servant unto my lord, the king ; 
but my lord the king is as an angel of God ; do 
therefore what is good in thine eyes. For all of 
my father's house were but dead men before my 
lord the king ; yet didst thou set thy servant among 
them that did eat at thine own table. What right 
therefore have I to cry any more unto the king?" 
One never likes to admit that he cannot read hu- 
man nature, and has been deceived; and David 



252 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

was scarcely willing to acknowledge that lie was 
grossly duped when he confiscated the lame man's 
estate. The case was perplexing, for even Mephi- 
bosheth might be deceiving him. His reply was 
something less than generous. " Why speakest thou 
any more of thy matters ? I have said, Thou and 
Ziba divide the land." This seems unjust. One 
or the other deserved the entire property. If 
Ziba had told the truth, he should have all ; if a 
lie, then none. " The matter however is not so 
bad as it looks. The king reverts to what he had 
said, which carries the mind back to the first ar- 
rangement, which was that Mephibosheth should 
be proprietor, and Ziba his tenant, dividing the 
produce of the land between them. 

" It may be, therefore, that the king meant to be 
understood as restoring this arrangement — thus 
depriving Ziba of the advantage which his treachery 
acquired, without ejecting him from his tenancy 
under Mephibosheth. Even this would be hard 
enough for the son of Jonathan to be thus still 
connected with a steward who had betrayed him. 
But the student of history knows that at a restora- 
tion, the rules of right and wrong are seldom 
strictly carried out, and the king having two par- 
ties to satisfy, feels obliged to act upon compro- 
mises, which give to all something less than their 
due."— (Kim.) 

We are disarmed of all suspicion toward Mephi- 
bosheth, by his noble reply. " Yea, let him take 



THE RESTORATION. 253 

all, forasmuch as my lord the king is come again 
in peace unto his own house." This loyal man 
was afterwards spared by David, when the Gibeon- 
ites took a savage vengeance upon the house of 
Saul, for injuries received when he was king. (2 
Sam. xxi. 7.) 

Social convulsions bring to light the characters 
of men. Not a few, long honoured, are found to 
be hollow-hearted ; others, hidden in a corner, are 
found to be patriots of the noblest stamp. Bar- 
zillai was the man to partly fill the void in David's 
heart. Being a "very great man" he had helped 
to store the commissary department. As a " very 
aged man, even fourscore years old," his sympa- 
thies were most refreshing to the king, when young 
Israel was in rebellion. He came to give his last 
lift in aiding David over the river. To have such 
a noble specimen of loyal humanity at the court 
would make the king's heart immensely rich, and 
he said to the good old chieftain, " Come thou over 
with me, and I will feed thee with me in Jerusa- 
lem." But he was "too old a tree to be trans- 
planted." The feasting and the singing would be 
no delight. And just like such a man, who mo- 
destly counts himself as nothing, he thinks that he 
has been a burden to the king even in his kind- 
ness, and why be a burden any longer? If per- 
mitted the favour, he " will go a little way over 
Jordan with the king," and then he must turn 
back, die in his own city, and be laid by the grave 
22 



254 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

of his father and his mother. He had honoured 
them while they lived, and his days had been long 
in the land. "How long have I to live?" He 
was thinking of another world, and perhaps, of the 
meeting with David when nothing should part 
them for ever. He sent his servant with the king, 
received his kiss and his blessing, and returned to 
his own home. 

" Behold, how great a matter a little fire kin- 
dleth." Once a miller and his apprentice quar- 
relled about wages; others took part in it; the 
whole town became divided ; then the nation took 
it up, or rather took up the weightier matters 
growing out of it ; then nearly all France and 
Germany were involved in the "miller's war," 
and years passed before it was settled. A mere 
point of etiquette, violated, set on flame the jea- 
lousy between Israel and Judah. The avalanche 
had long been gathering, and the shouts of rejoicing 
put it in motion. Judah did not wait at the Jor- 
dan for the brother-tribes to appear, and take part 
in helping David over the river. It was a digni- 
fied proceeding, and surely, ought to have been 
done by a committee of all the tribes ! Bu,t lo ! in 
their officious haste, "the people of Judah conducted 
the king, and also half the people of Israel." The 
other half of Israel are slighted, and mortally of- 
fended. The unceremonious affair has been as 
secret as a theft, and they will not endure the in- 
sult of being neglected. Judah has assumed too 



THE RESTORATION. 255 

much in claiming the right and the honour of re- 
storing the king as if he belonged especially to 
them by right of monopoly. And now Israel 
cares less for the king than about this point of 
ceremony. A hot contention arises between the 
two parties. At first it is quite enough to amuse 
the king to see each contending for the best right 
to bring back the sovereign whom they had united 
in driving from the throne. The men of Israel 
ask him, "Why have our brethren, the men of 
Judah, stolen thee away?" Before he can reply 
the men of Judah answer, quite unwisely, "Be- 
cause the king is near of kin to us : wherefore 
then should ye be angry for this matter ? have we 
eaten at all of the king's cost? (have we been 
feasting before you could come ?) or hath he given 
us any gift?" To be called angry provokes yet 
more their rage, and the Israel-party set up a still 
higher claim. " We have ten parts in the king, 
and we have also more right in David than ye : 
why then did ye despise us, that our advice should 
not be first had in bringing back our king?" Men 
often assume to be cool in a quarrel in order to 
cloak their anger, and thus " the words of the men 
of Judah were fiercer than the words of the men 
of Israel." 

As Dr. Chalmers remarks, " Here was a fester- 
ment that broke out at a future day," and even 
now, "came to a formidable eruption." There 
happened to be present a schemer of Absalom's 



256 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

school of politics, a man of Belial, named Sheba, a 
Eenjaminite, and he thought that the tide of his 
fortune had come. As a leader was wanted, he 
put himself forward, and hoped to persuade those 
who claimed "ten parts in the king," that they 
had really no part at all. Blowing a trumpet he 
raised the seditious cry, "We have no part in 
David, neither have we inheritance in the son of 
Jesse : every man to his tents, Israel." It was 
enough. The standard of revolt was raised, and 
every man of Israel seceded, and followed the new 
demagogue. The king was left to his tribal kin- 
dred, who saw him safely restored to his city, 
palace, and throne. 



IMITATORS OF ABSALOM. 257 



CHAPTER XXII. 

Imitators of Absalom. 

Vengeance is still alive : from her dark covert 
She stalks in view. 

The most abundant materials had been prepared 
by Absalom, the fire was kindled by letting fall a 
careless spark, and now a vast spreading confla- 
gration must be put out by pouring blood upon it. 
The king must teach those who had declared that they 
had no longer ten parts in David, that he had ten 
parts in Israel. It was painful to find one trouble 
rising out of another : deep was calling unto deep : 
the sword was not yet departed from his house. 
Much sooner than he expected, he had cause to 
test the generalship of his nephew Amasa. He 
ordered him to issue a call for the troops of Judah 
to assemble within three days. He set about it, 
but the three days passed, and no warriors were 
mustered before the king. The rapid Joab would 
hardly have required even this short time, and no 
doubt David began to see his error in relieving him 
of the chief command. For his rough faithfulness 
22* 



258 THE KEBEL PRINCE. 

to his king in finishing Absalom and his rebellion, 
David had regarded him with abhorrence. His re- 
moval was not a popular act, as was now proved, 
for the people were unwilling to follow the new 
leader, so lately the rebel commander, and now 
chief by the gift of an office. David himself was 
quick in military operations, and long used to 
Joab's driving style, and he could not brook 
Am as a' s delay. "Without giving him a day of 
grace, and fearing that Sheba would do more harm 
than Absalom did, he sent Abishai upon the march 
with the home-guards, foreign troops, Joab's vete- 
rans, and such mighty men as the hour could af- 
ford. Joab was not the man to stand silent as 
"vengeance leaning on a lance." He was not to 
be outdone, nor put out by a slight. In spite of 
his disgrace he joined the army. He thought that 
to make a good peace, there must be a good war, 
and as for the war he must make it. Besides, he 
had an affair of jealousy and revenge to settle. 
He probably became the actual commander. At 
Gibeon they halted, and Amasa overtook them 
with his recruits. Joab went to meet him, and so 
contrived that his sword should drop from its sheath 
as he came near. It seemed to his new rival as an 
accident, and Joab, snatching it up, made himself 
so polite that he excited no suspicion, by holding it 
in his hand. Taking Amasa by the beard to kiss 
him, and asking, "Art thou in health, my brother?" 
he buried the naked blade in his body under the 



IMITATORS OF ABSALOM. 259 

fifth rib, very much as he had done with Abner. 
It was a bold atrocious deed — nothing less than 
the decided murder of a general in command. 

One of Joab's men then shouted out, "He that 
favour eth Joab, and he that is for David, let him 
go after Joab" to the battle. When the corpse of 
Amasa was removed out of the highway his troops 
obeyed the call. There was magic in the name, 
and confidence in the war-tried general, so that the 
number of his forces greatly increased on the 
march. The rebel leader after rambling about and 
failing to gather the tribes as he expected, shut 
himself up in the fortified town of Abel-Beth- 
Maachah. Joab besieged it, battered the wall, and 
made ready for a general storm. One woman by 
her wisdom saved the city. " We may suppose it 
was the first time he had ever treated with a woman 
in martial affairs." She tells him, (for so reads 
the marginal version of chapter xx. 18,) that the 
elders of the city had said in the beginning of the 
siege, " Surely they will ask of the dwellers in 
Abel that the traitor be given up, and thus end 
the matter." The hint is taken, and Joab declares 
" Only deliver him up, and I will depart from the 
city." She promises that his head shall be thrown 
over the wall, goes to "the people in her wisdom," 
and persuades them to execute the rebel chief. 
They do it, fling his head to Joab, and thus prove 
that "wisdom is better than strength." The 
trump is blown, the loyal forces retire, are dis- 



260 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

banded and every man goes to his tent or house. 
"And Joab returned to Jerusalem unto the king," 
having proved, he probably thought, that David 
could never do without him. So far as a complete 
and brilliant success could compensate for his 
crime, he had done the best possible. He had 
won back the lost command, and, as he was too 
great to be displaced, he was permitted to keep it. 
David was not always his own master; Joab was 
really often above him, doing great service by his 
rough patriotism and ready valour, but injuring 
the good name of the king, and the moral reputa- 
tion of his government, by actions which David de- 
tested in his inmost soul. The one thing he could 
do was to make short work of a rebellion. 

Perhaps we may be tempted to make his heroism 
and loyalty excuse, if not atone for, his great 
crimes. We forget the private sins of such a man 
when so covered by public services. But David 
could not forget them. To him Joab was as one 
of the sons of Belial, who were as thorns that must 
be rooted out and thrust away, and yet " cannot 
be taken with hands, but the man that shall touch 
them must be fenced with iron, and the staff of a 
spear," that he may toss them into the fire. (2 
Samuel xxiii. 6, 7.) It was hard to bring to jus- 
tice the great general who had never lost an im- 
portant battle, and who had rendered the king 
more vigorous service than any other man in the 
kingdom. David postponed the trying matter to 



IMITATORS OF ABSALOM. 261 

the last moment of the eleventh hour, and from his 
death-bed threw off the burden from his conscience. 
Joab was old, but he must account for his old sins. 
He could not but notice that "Joab had turned 
after Adonijah, though he turned not after Absa- 
lom." He was forced to consider the consequences 
to the realm if these crimson sins of Joab were 
suffered longer to pass unpunished, and there was 
good ground on which to bring him to justice. 

The reason expressly given was the murders of 
Abner and Amasa, "Whom he slew, and shed the 
blood of war in (a time of) peace, and put the blood 
of war upon his girdle that was about his loins, and 
in his shoes that were upon his feet." David had 
forgiven and made peace with these rebellious men 
just before Joab murdered them, and this was set- 
ting himself above his king. Here the words 
"what Joab did to me," — trampling upon my au- 
thority and despising my amnesty — may have their 
meaning. "Do therefore according to thy wisdom, 
and let not his hoar head go down to the grave in 
peace." He was put to death at the altar and was 
buried in his own house in the wilderness. 

In retiring from the field of blood over which we 
have been walking, lessons enough crowd upon us. 
The sin of rebellion has written its warnings in 
crimson, and against it stand forever the monu- 
ments raised by Divine justice. What a list of 
rebels! Ish-bosheth, and Abner, Absalom, Ahitho- 
phel and Amasa, Shimei and Sheba, and at the 



262 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

last even Adonijah and Joab are in revolt. They 
all perished by a death which their treason brought 
upon them. The earthly pardon granted to some 
of them could not ward off the judgment of God. 
And how contagious is the sin of disobedience and 
revolt! Absalom draws "all Israel" after him. 
Nor does his death or the dispersion of his army 
end the iniquity. The malaria is not driven from 
the towns and valleys of Palestine. The canker 
eats again at the national heart. The tribes quar- 
rel, draw party lines, and finally are for ever sepa- 
rated by the revolt of the ten tribes, who become 
so utterly extinguished that their doom is a mys- 
tery on which no light is cast by all the researches 
of history. There are national sins which bring 
enlightened nations under calamities, and may 
sink them into oblivion, and one of them is rebel- 
lion against a righteous government. 

Sinful as this is, there is something worse. To 
refuse obedience to God is worse, for it is the most 
enormous revolt possible for men. Human au- 
thorities may overlook this crime; it lies not in 
their sphere, or within their jurisdiction, but God 
will bring the guilty to punishment, unless they ac- 
cept his abundant pardon. No public services to 
a human government can remove the guilt of this 
sin. Amasa had put himself in revolt against 
God, and however David might pardon, or he serve 
his forgiving king, yet on him the blow of justice 
must fall for his sins against Jehovah. Still 



IMITATORS OF ABSALOM. 263 

stronger is the case of Joab. His national services 
could not compensate for his crimes against the 
Lord. Nor can any of our patriotic deeds and 
sacrifices obliterate the penalty written by God 
upon our personal sins. Honour the loyal man, 
who like good old Barzillai bestowed his largest 
gererosities to his country's defenders; honour the 
hidden ones, who like Mephibosheth patiently suf- 
fer losses, rather than have any complicity with 
rebellion, or make disturbances which will weaken 
the rightful power of an administration ; honour 
the soldiers, who put their lives in jeopardy on 
every battle-field, or fall a sacrifice to victory, but 
resist the temptation to believe that services and 
sacrifices paid to any human government will atone 
for personal sins against God. It may be pleasing 
to think it, the notion may be popular, and is in 
our times, but the noblest patriotism cannot secure 
the salvation of the soul. A patriotic man, a 
brave soldier, may swear profanely, as we know 
most painfully by our ears, but " the Lord will not 
hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain." 
A loyal man may be grossly intemperate, as we 
know most mournfully by our eyes, but the Lord 
hath written, "No drunkard shall inherit the 
kingdom of heaven." Tell the soldier, who goes 
from your homes, of the earthly glory which the 
brave and the dying patriot may win; tell him 
that duty is a far higher motive than dreams of 
glory, but do not deceive his soul by whispering 



264 THE REBEL PRINCE. 

that bravery will gain for him the infinite rewards 
of heaven. True to the last, he may be, to his 
government, but untrue from the first, he may 
have been to his God, and to the Saviour who shed 
his blood to redeem him. Commend to him the 
example of a young recruit, who in serving his 
country wished to serve his God. Before taking 
the oath of allegiance to the government, he vowed 
allegiance to King Jesus, made the profession of 
his faith, was baptized, and enrolled among the 
people of God. He could " endure hardness as a 
good soldier of Jesus Christ," and march with a 
steadier courage to the battle. No less a Chris- 
tian he was all the more a patriot. 

Nor can any mere moral services and sacrifices 
in the moral kingdom save the soul. Good works 
may be the very best that we can render, but they 
cannot buy off the penalty due to our sins. The 
sins may be older than the works, and, like the 
crimes of Joab, must remain against us until we 
accept a relief from their penalties through Christ. 
If we have fled for refuge to the cross of Jesus, 
and there be any tempter that bids us away, that 
he may deceive us into death, we each may say 
with firmest faith, "Nay, but I will die here." 
And dying there we may hear the words, "To-day 
shalt thou be with me in Paradise." 



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